President Jokowi Urges Farmers, Traders Association to Modernize Agricultural Machines

: President Jokowi meets Central Java’s Gapoktan and Perpadi, at Diponegoro Sports Hall, Sragen Regency, Central Java, Wednesday (3/4). (Photo by: PR/Rahmat)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo urged Central Java’s Joint Farmers Group (Gapoktan) and Indonesian Rice Millers and Traders Association (Perpadi) to improve agricultural production equipment.

According to President Jokowi, the farmers and traders need to modernize agricultural production equipment and to possess packaging machines. Rice drying machine is absolutely necessary since so far farmers are still drying rice in the yard or on the side of the road that lowered the quality of rice.

“We have experienced it for years. We must change it. In this modern era, we need a dryer installed in the milling machine,” the President said during the gathering of Central Java’s Gapoktan and Perpadi at Diponegoro Sports Hall, Sragen Regency, Central Java on Wednesday (3/4).

President Jokowi also said that a rice mill should be equipped with a packaging machine so that the rice is already packaged and is ready for sale as they are coming out of a machine. He also stressed the importance of branding and instructed the farmers to put the name of the region on the packaging to let the people know which sub-district the rice comes from.

On the occasion, President Jokowi also reminded the people about the importance of changing the old patterns to be on par with other countries.

“We are a big country; we should not lose the competition. But, we are losing to our neighbors. We are losing to Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam in term of investment,” President Jokowi said adding that we may lose to Laos and Cambodia in the future if the problem persists.

The President went on to say that as a country with 269 million populations, consisting of various ethnicities, religions, customs, traditions, and cultures, Indonesians must maintain the country’s unity.

President Jokowi also said that after April 17, he would like to invite Perpadi and Gapoktan to the Palace.

“We will discuss matters of rice, fertilizers, drying machines, milling machines, packaging machines, to Bulog (Indonesian Bureau of Logistics) and to the bank,” he concluded. (RSF/EN)

Translated by : Fairuzzamani Inayatillah
Edited by : Rany A. Subachrum, Mia M. Bonaedy