In Simalungun, Coordinating Minister Airlangga Emphasized The Government's Commitment To Strengthening The Agriculture Sector

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto stated that the government is currently continuing to encourage initiatives for multi-stakeholder collaboration through the development of an efficient and integrated upstream-thick agribusiness ecosystem based on technology.

According to him, these efforts are made so that the competitiveness of agricultural commodities can be increased and be able to meet domestic needs at affordable prices.

"We see that Indonesia during the last pandemic, inflation was low because food was available. However, we must also pay attention to the weather challenges, namely the dry season, this must be considered and mitigated or prevented, so that it does not affect so that the productivity horticulture decreases," he said in a written statement in the Simalungun Integrated Agriculture Area (KPOT), North Sumatra, Thursday, June 22.

According to Airlangga, one of the models initiated and running well is a closed-loop horticultural agribusiness partnership involving farmers, cooperatives, banks, off takers and business actors from upstream to downstream.

"As directed by President Joko Widodo, that this partnership model should continue to be developed and replicated in other regions to increase productivity and added value of farmers," he said.

Airlangga explained that so far there have been 16 districts that have developed partnerships and 10 districts that have planned to be involved in this partnership.

Specifically for Simalungun Regency, he continued, the Horticulture Closed Loops Partnership program has been developed on an area of 1500 hectares since 2022.

"I appreciate the Regent of Simalungun who is also the Regent of Deli Serdang and his staff who are developing Integrated Agriculture Areas to increase business scale, productivity, quality and added value of agricultural commodities through mutually beneficial program initiatives," he said.

Airlangga hopes that the development of the Deli Serdang and Simalungun ID cards will continue to Karo Regency and others.

"This is so that it can become a buffer for food needs in North Sumatra and nationally," he said.

One thing that is of common concern, Airlangga reminded about the importance of increasing the capacity of agricultural human resources which is the key to the success of Closed Loops Agribusiness.

"Therefore, I ask regional heads to focus on developing millennial farmers. I hope that the Deputy Governor (Musa Rajekshah) so that the model here becomes a pilot in North Sumatra," he added.

Based on BPS data, the number of young farmers, aged under 35 years, is only 34.22 million people or 11.63 percent of the total 27,568 million farmers in Indonesia. Airlangga assessed that this needs to be regeneration of farmers so that agricultural development can move faster.

"The government certainly pays attention to this to be addressed so that all these horticultural agricultural products continue to grow," he concluded.