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Private sector key to empowering farmers, experts say
The private sector's involvement in improving the welfare of family farmers, who account for half of the country's total population, is growing in importance, the government and observers have said.
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Green city: A farmer waters his vegetables in Semanan, Kalideres, West Jakarta. Many farmers rent idle land in Jakarta owned by big companies and turn it into productive plots by planting rice and various vegetables. Such land, however, is getting more and more scarce. (The Jakarta Post/R. Berto Wedhatama)
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The private sector's involvement in improving the welfare of family farmers, who account for half of the country's total population, is growing in importance, the government and observers have said.
The idea was conveyed in a conference hosted by the Foreign Ministry on Thursday in Jakarta as a preparatory event for the United Nations General Assembly's official launch of the Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 next month in Rome.
Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Eko Putro Sandjojo said during the conference that the private sector's involvement was one of the keys to improving the productivity and welfare of family farmers, who mainly reside in villages. An estimated 82.77 percent of villagers in Indonesia rely on agriculture to earn a living, he said.
The private sector's role, aside from investing in costly post-harvest infrastructure, was to guarantee there is a market for the commodities produced by farmers, he said.
Most family farmers in Indonesia do not own their own land and most rent or carry out farming activities under profit-sharing schemes with land owners on small farms of less than a square hectare.
A lack of market access often affects their already low incomes, which are unsteady as they are heavily influenced by weather changes.
