TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Revised Crop Cultivation Law disadvantages small-scall farmers: NGOs
Despite the revision, many NGO activists said the law still disadvantages small-scale farmers as it imposes restrictions on the use and distribution of refined seeds.
Change Size
A farmer sprays insecticide on his crops in a rice field near Denpasar, Bali. NGO activists said the revision of the 1992 law on sustainable crop cultivation still puts small-scale farmers at a disadvantage. (Antara/Nyoman Budhiana)
J
ust when he thought he had complied with the law, Munirwan, a farmer from Aceh, was arrested in August for distributing IF8 rice seeds without a permit and certification.
The local police said they had solid grounds to prosecute Munirwan because he allegedly violated the 1992 Crop Cultivation Law that prohibits small-scale farmers from distributing the new seeds without a formal permit from the related authorities.
Besides being involved in farming activities, Munirwan is a village head in North Aceh regency and the president director of PT Bumades Nisami Indonesia (BNI), which distributes seeds to local farmers.
“He was legally processed not as a farmer or the head of the village but as the president director of PT BNI,” the local police told Kompas.com following his arrest.
But Munirwan said he had reported the distribution of the refined rice seeds to the local administration and was even encouraged by officials to distribute them to other farmers.
To remove the legal uncertainty that has put a man like Munirwan in a legal fix, lawmakers agreed to revise two articles in the 1992 law on Sept. 24 to allow small-scale farmers to distribute refined crop seeds, but only within the same regency.
“The law is essentially meant to protect small-scale farmers,” said Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman, who told Kompas on Sept. 24 that the provision had made an exception for small-scale farmers to seek new genetic resources for plant breeding without licensing.
