Vice presidential candidate Muhaimin Iskandar has pledged to entice more young people into the agriculture sector, saying that the younger generation's reluctance to become farmers was due to the lack of profitability in the sector.

"How can people be interested in the agricultural sector if they cannot profit from it? How can they start a business without making a profit?" Muhaimin said on Wednesday, as quoted by Kompas. "We've prepared various initiatives for the younger generation, including programs for the agricultural sector."

One program Muhaimin mentioned was the Agro-Maritime Revolution, a two-and-a-half-year program that aims to support millennial farmers from cultivation to product marketing, to help them get started.

"We're offering a 2.5-year opportunity to ensure young farmers can get profit. The Agro-Maritime Revolution reflects the government's full commitment to agriculture, covering everything from downstream to upstream," Muhaimin said.

Muhaimin also voiced concern about the current government's tendency to import food. He believed Indonesian farmers were capable of producing quality products, yet, even in the harvest season, the government still imported food.

"The concerning issue is that we can produce rice very well. But, every year, we still import a considerable amount," said Muhaimin, as cited from Kompas.com. "What is even more worrying is that [there is] a habit of importing, even during the harvest."

Muhaimin says this strategy only benefited the countries Indonesia imported from and hurt the farmers. Therefore, he said the trading system regarding agricultural products in Indonesia needed to change.

He said that, if elected, he aimed to amend laws that adversely affect farmers who have endured over a decade of hardships, such as fertilizer scarcity, a problem that existed before the Russia-Ukraine war broke out.

Muhaimin believes addressing the “rice mafia,” or those who monopolize rice distribution, is also crucial to ensuring farmers' prosperity. Alongside tackling this distribution issue, Muhaimin promises government support for young farmers, including scholarships in the agro-maritime sector. Ultimately, he envisions a self-sufficient Indonesia that no longer needs to export food.

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