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Agriculture groups warn of farming land loss
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A farmer uses a combine harvester on March 22 at his rice farm in Somba Opu district, Gowa regency, South Sulawesi. (Antara/Arnas Padda)
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arious agricultural groups have warned the central government that the country is rapidly losing farming land and are calling for immediate action, following a meeting on the sidelines of agricultural exhibition InaGRO Expo 2022 in Surabaya, East Java, over the weekend.
The meeting, dubbed Rembug Tani (agricultural meeting), heard that at the current rate, Indonesia would only have a total of 3.6 million hectares of farming land by the time the country celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2045.
“[That figure] will be very inadequate to fulfill our food needs,” said Sumrambah, chairman of the East Java Andalan Fishermen and Farmers Community (KTNA) and Jombang deputy regent.
He said that in 2012, the country had a total of 8.4 million ha of farming land; by 2019 this had declined to 7.4 million ha.
Rembug Tani was attended by representatives from the East Java chapters of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI), Indonesian Fishermen Association (HNSI), Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), the Financial Services Authority (OJK), universities and the media.
The meeting called on the government to immediately decide on sustainable food farming land (LPSB) to protect farming land from conversion by other sectors. Sumrambah said that this included enforcing the Agriculture Law on land usage to reduce the amount of idle land.
“This is to prevent investors from buying large plots of land and then leaving it unused,” he said.
