Professor Of IPB Reveals Future Challenges Of Agriculture: Our Productivity Is Still Low Compared To China, Vietnam, Brazil

JAKARTA - Professor of the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Muhammad Firdaus, revealed that the challenges in the agricultural sector include the low level of productivity.

"Our (agricultural) productivity for plantations and horticulture is still low compared to countries such as Vietnam, Brazil, China. But for main food, we are already tidy", said Muhammad Firdaus in the webinar "Potential of the Agricultural Industry in the Capital Market Vortex", quoted from Antara, Thursday 2 December.

Muhammad Firdaus said that another challenge faced by the domestic agricultural sector is the inefficient production process. Then the supply chain is also considered inefficient, causing unstable food prices.

Furthermore, food loss or food waste originating from food ingredients such as vegetables, fruits, or food that is still raw, but cannot be processed into food and is finally thrown away.

The last one is the relatively low capacity of Human Resources (HR) and a large number of elderly farmers. He said 80 percent of farmers in Indonesia are around 45 years old.

The professor from the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, IPB revealed the need for investment in processing agricultural products so that farmers are not limited to the production of raw materials.

"That still needs to be regulated, of course, accompanied by digitalization. If productivity can be increased, farmers' income will be higher than the UMK", he said.

He added that the agricultural sector is an important commodity during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, the demand for food needs has not decreased due to the pandemic but has actually increased.

"During this pandemic, our total exports decreased, but agriculture increased. So it remains a foreign exchange reserve", said Muhammad Firdaus.