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Govt trains more young people to become farmers amid low prices
Field trip: President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo (left) inspects a panicle of rice ready for harvest shown by Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman in Sonorejo village, Sukoharjo regency, Central Java, on Saturday
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Field trip: President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo (left) inspects a panicle of rice ready for harvest shown by Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman in Sonorejo village, Sukoharjo regency, Central Java, on Saturday. The rice is cultivated using three different microbial fertilizers, resulting in dense grains.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi) (left) inspects a panicle of rice ready for harvest shown by Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman in Sonorejo village, Sukoharjo regency, Central Java, on Saturday. The rice is cultivated using three different microbial fertilizers, resulting in dense grains.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
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span class="inline inline-center">Field trip: President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo (left) inspects a panicle of rice ready for harvest shown by Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman in Sonorejo village, Sukoharjo regency, Central Java, on Saturday. The rice is cultivated using three different microbial fertilizers, resulting in dense grains.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
Following a warning by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) that Indonesia may face a shortage of farmers as more and more young people object to becoming farmers, the government has claimed that farmers today are more prosperous and that young people are still interested in taking up the job thanks to several ongoing programs offered by the agriculture ministry.
Pending Dadih Permana, the ministry's head of agricultural human resources development and counseling on modern agricultural technologies, said the government had rolled out programs that included intensive training and counseling to youth in 10 provinces in Indonesia, including Bali and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), as well as sending young farmers to train in agriculture in developed countries like Japan.
'Our farmers are happy and prosperous and more young people are getting more interested in becoming farmers in their hometowns,' Dadih said.
On Friday, LIPI published the preliminary findings of its long-term survey showing that more and more young people had joined in the exodus to cities in order to seek a more promising income.
The survey, which was conducted in six months in three Central Javanese regencies ' Sragen, Klaten and Sukoharjo ' found that most young people in these areas objected to becoming farmers.
The intensive training and counseling provided by the Agriculture Ministry, Dadih said, aimed at improving young people's knowledge and skills by introducing them to modern agricultural machines so that they could carry out agricultural work, from planting to harvesting, by themselves in simpler and easier ways.
Dadih said that the ministry had also sent tens of youths from several provinces to undertake an internship in Japan so that they could gain more knowledge about farming and how to make agricultural products more profitable.
'We will show them that the agriculture sector is fun and has potential. Most of them show an interest in it,' Dadih said. 'So, who said that young people don't want to become farmers?'
According to him, the programs were interesting enough to excite and inspire the youth to stay in their hometowns and become farmers.
'The programs work well. If we take a look at Central Java, or those in Karawang [West Java], many young people manage their own agricultural lands,' he said.
The ministry expects to open more and more agricultural vocational schools (SMKs) in addition to universities offering agriculture programs.
However, such programs are not enough to check the declining number of farmers.
Association of Indonesian Farmers (HKTI) deputy chairman Rachmat Pambudy said that the programs were far from enough to generate more young farmers in Indonesia.
'The programs are good, but not enough to convince young people that becoming farmers is a profitable thing,' Rachmat said.
He went on to say that hundreds of graduates who held degrees in agricultural science from prestigious universities in Indonesia would not even want to become farmers.
'Who wants to work in a field toiling under the sun for an uncertain amount of income?' Rachmat said.
He said that in order to attract more young people to farming, the government had to reform selling prices.
'The government must have the courage to buy agricultural products, such as chili and rice, at high prices,' he said. 'What's the point of training and sending youths abroad to learn about agriculture, subsidizing fertilizer and seed, when the products that go to market confront falls in prices?'
Rachmat pointed out that in Japan and Malaysia, for example, many people were interested in becoming farmers because it was profitable.
The government, Rachmat added, should start to involve farmers in helping to decide market prices.
He said that the government should also provide them not only with modern machines, but also long-term infrastructure.
'For example, tobacco farmers should have their own cigarette factories, and chili farmers their own sambal [chili sauce] factories,' Rachmat said. (foy)
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