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Muhaimin vows to distribute state-owned land to farmers
Vice presidential candidate Muhaimin Iskandar said each farmer needed to manage at least two hectares of land to be prosperous.
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Vice presidential candidate Muhaimin Iskandar (right) hits a traditional slit drum, locally known as "kentongan" in front of his supporters during a campaign event at Simpang Agung field in Central Lampung, Lampung, on Jan. 9, 2024. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)
Vice presidential candidate Muhaimin Iskandar has pledged to distribute state-owned land to farmers to improve their welfare and productivity if he and his running partner Anies Baswedan win the 2024 election.
"If [Anies-Muhaimin] wins, the government will give its land to the people to be used for farming and improving productivity," Muhaimin said on Sunday during a campaign event in Probolinggo, East Java, as reported by Antara News.
Muhaimin said the reason why farmers in Indonesia were less prosperous was because many of them owned less than 0.3 hectares of land. He argued that to be categorized as prosperous, farmers should have at least two ha of land.
"Our stance for fairness is in how [we can] take back state-owned land [under the management] of a handful of people and use it for the sake of the country and people’s prosperity," he said.
Muhaimin also addressed President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s food estate program, which he argued was closely linked to land distribution. Echoing Anies, Muhaimin criticized the program, arguing that it lacked thorough planning.
Muhaimin said in lieu of the food estate program, the government needed to instead empower farmers. He also cited persisting issues in the agricultural sector, including the scarcity and high price of fertilizer, which he claimed could only be solved by the president and vice president.
“From what I’ve heard, farmers have no fertilizer [and rely on] poor-quality seeds, and when it's time to harvest they have [to sell crops at] low prices. If [Anies-Muhaimin] wins, farmers must work comfortably, all their planting and production needs must be available. Then the harvest results will be good, so farmers work, they profit, have savings and are happy,” Muhaimin explained.
Muhaimin vowed to stop the food estate project if he was elected as vice president and replace it with a program that he had prepared.
“We shouldn’t let farmers be sidelined while we procure food supplies; that’s not right. Therefore, we stop the food estate program. We replace the farmers who are involved and increase food production,” he said.
