Gov’t to Strengthen Food Estate Program through Intensive Assistance Efforts for Farmers

President Jokowi inspects a food estate site in Makata Keri Village, Katiku Tana District, Central Sumba Regency, East Nusa Tenggara province. (Photo by: Press Bureau of the Presidential Secretariat/Muchlis Jr)

In a bid to strengthen food estate program aimed to anticipate national food crisis, Ministry of Agriculture affirmed the importance of increasing production and strengthening food reserves, one of which is through intensive assistance efforts for farmers.

According to Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo Syahrul, the Ministry will make maximum efforts on all fronts so that the assistance provided to farmers in the food estate area in the provinces of Central Kalimantan, North Sumatra, and East Nusa Tenggara can run optimally, one of which is through the team formation to assist the development of the food estates.

“Officers need to be prepared and their competence must be improved so that they can work optimally. By having the competency, facilitators will have the ability to assist farmers in food estates in conducting cultivation, using agricultural tools and machinery, and handling harvest and post-harvest activities,” he said in Jakarta, Thursday (04/03).

The Minister emphasized that this team will be the main foundation in optimizing various activities of the food estates from upstream to downstream. The facilitators are expected to assist farmers in accelerating the development of food estates and strengthening farmer institutions as well as the development of farmer businesses and corporations.

“In agriculture, it is most important that we are willing to work, the key is to focus and understand clearly and in detail what we are doing, what our targets are, understand the terrain, understand the people we should be familiar with on the ground, and certainly we must have discipline and good cooperation,” he said.

To make the food estate program a success, the Minister is committed to fully supporting the assistance efforts for farmers, which serves as a very important step in accelerating agricultural activities in food estate sites.

“This is a good step, do not take a step back or stop, we have to fight, I fully support the assistance efforts, technically all work units in the Ministry must work and support,” he said.

For the record, in the initial stage, the team will work intensively for the next three months. This team consists of 70 government functional staff including researchers, central extension agents, widyaiswara (educators at government institutions), lecturers, plant seed supervisors, research and engineering technicians, plant pest observers, and others. (PR of Ministry of Agriculture/UN) (FI/MUR)