Badanas Denies Low Indonesian Farmers' Income

Head of Badanas Arief Prasetyo Adi. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The National Food Agency (Bapanas) dismissed a statement from the World Bank or World Bank which stated that Indonesia's farmers' income was low.

Head of Badanas Arief Prasetyo Adi said, the average individual operating income in Indonesia is IDR 66.82 million per year.

Arief said the data refers to the latest publication of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) for the Complete Disbursement of the 2023 Phase II Agricultural Census.

"The result states that the average individual agricultural business revenue in Indonesia is IDR 66.82 million per year," he said in an official statement, Thursday, September 26.

Meanwhile, Arief continued, referring to the 2021 Integrated Agriculture Survey (Sitation), the average individual agricultural business unit earns IDR 15.41 million in revenue in a year.

"With that it can mean that individual agricultural operating income averages have increased more than four times," he said.

"We at the National Food Agency are grateful that the income of all farmers is still well maintained and has increased from year to year. This also indicates that the food ecosystem, which is built from upstream to downstream, is running quite well," he continued.

Arief mengaku yakin apabila semangat produktivitas petani terus mengebu, tentu keterasan kebutuhan konsumsi pangan dari pasokan domestik mampu terwujudkan, sehingga kemandirian pangan nasional pun semakin kokoh.

Furthermore, Arief said, BPS also reported that of all agricultural businesses in Indonesia in 2023, 68.10 percent were included in the small-scale farmer category.

From that category, he continued, nationally in 2023, small-scale farmers in Indonesia are said to be able to earn revenue of 8.50 US dollars Purchasing Power Parties (PPP) where 1 US PPP dollar is equal to Rp5,239.05 so that it becomes equivalent to Rp44,507 per working day.

On the other hand, Arief continued, in 2023 farmers who were not included in the small-scale farmer category were reported to be able to earn revenue of 368.34 US dollars PPP or equivalent to Rp1,929,764 per working day.

"This has increased significantly because in 2021, according to the results of SITATION, farmers in this category at that time were only able to generate revenue of 106.54 US dollars PPP or equivalent to Rp506,983 per working day," he said.

Arief claims that the increase in farmers' income is the result of the government's efforts in distributing rice food aid. He said this food aid also helped maintain the welfare of domestic farmers.

The government has consistently maintained the welfare of domestic farmers. The National Food Agency together with Bulog assisted in the absorption of rice production from our farmers, which we then distributed to various intervention programs, including rice food assistance like today," explained Arief.

Previously reported, the World Bank said the price of rice in Indonesia was 20 percent more expensive than the price of rice in the global market. In fact, domestic rice prices are the highest in the ASEAN region.

World Bank Country for Indonesia and Timor-Leste, balik Turk said the high price of rice in Indonesia was due to several policies signed by the government, one of which was related to non-tariff import restrictions.

Although it intends to protect the agricultural sector, this non-tariff import restriction policy is actually considered the culprit for soaring domestic rice prices.

To protect agriculture, 95 percent of imports of the food sector are regulated through non-tariff measures, including quantitative restrictions and other non-tariff actions such as sanitary, fitosanitation, technical barriers, pre-delivery inspections, and so on. This is driving an increase in rice prices in Indonesia," explained Jasa at the 2024 Indonesia International Rice Conference (IIIRC) at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center, Friday, September 20.