Investigate The Seedling Mafia, Ministry Of SOEs Collaboration With The Ministry Of Agriculture: There Is A Farmer Data Program With SOEs

Special Staff of the Ministry of SOEs, Arya Sinulingga. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The existence of a seed mafia has recently been discussed after it was revealed by the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir. This seed mafia has harmed farmers.

Related to this, the Ministry of SOEs continues to coordinate and collaborate with various ministries including the Ministry of Agriculture to make improvements in the agricultural sector.

Special Staff to the Minister of SOEs, Arya Sinulingga, said that SOEs, which actually work a lot in the agricultural sector, such as fertilizers, plantations, and others, are making improvements and synchronizing data.

"Data synchronization and technical cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture are very important because indeed many agricultural sectors are being encroached upon by SOEs. Cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture has begun with the Farmer Data Program with BUMN Bank (Himbara) and Telkom," he said in a written statement received VOI, Monday, April 25.

Another technical cooperation is the procurement of seeds, because agricultural seeds are an important factor to get good agricultural products.

As is known, there are quite a number of SOEs engaged in palm oil, sugar cane, coffee and cocoa commodities, so that the procurement of seeds is an important part of plantation development.

"Moreover, there are many state-owned plantations that collaborate with farmers to support SOE production, such as oil palm and sugar cane," he said.

Arya said that the procurement of seeds for oil palm and sugar cane farmers requires cooperation between the Ministry of SOEs and the Ministry of Agriculture, so that farmers get the best and certified seeds.

"The experience of SOEs engaged in this field has found many fake certified seeds purchased by farmers from third parties," he said.

According to Arya, fake certified seeds are very detrimental to farmers because it has a big impact on their commodity yields and of course this will also harm BUMN because it has an impact on supply volume to BUMN factories.

"This condition makes the Ministry of SOEs encourage cooperation to synchronize data and technical with the Ministry of Agriculture so that on the one hand farmers get the best seeds on the other hand the production target is achieved," he said.