Overcoming Poverty Among Farmers, NTB Provincial Government Asked To Issue Fertilizer And Pesticide Subsidy Policy

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - In an effort to overcome poverty among farmers, Secretary of Commission II for Economic Affairs of the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) DPRD Haerul Warisin asked the local provincial government to provide subsidies to farmers.

"Actually, I don't agree that the agricultural sector is said to dominate extreme poverty in NTB. To mention unscrupulous farm laborers and garden workers makes sense. Because they may not own land. Because they are farm laborers and garden workers who cannot get the maximum wages due to These agricultural commodities cannot reach good prices according to farmers' expectations, hampered by high prices of fertilizers and pesticides," said Haerul, as quoted by Antara, Saturday, July 23.

He said that the problem of farmers so far is the lack of commodity production due to too high production costs, where the price of fertilizers and pesticides cannot be controlled by the government, thus making it difficult for farmers to bear during production.

"The NTB Provincial Government should give farmers subsidies for fertilizers and pesticides so that farmers' production can increase, so that farm workers and garden workers can be given higher wages. The agricultural sector no longer needs to be called dominating poverty," he also said.

He emphasized that farmers as rice field owners cannot be said to be poor, because they have managed land.

"If the government already knows that the agricultural sector dominates extreme poverty. It should care about farmers by providing fertilizer and pesticide subsidies, not seeming to push high prices, don't just pay attention to infrastructure," he said again.

In addition to providing solutions for fertilizer and pesticide subsidies. The NTB provincial government must also facilitate farmers to sell their produce, not just corn and onions.

"In terms of corn, it is not necessary for the governor to be difficult to ask the central government to increase the purchase price of corn, because corn is currently being needed due to the large number of animal feed factories, of course the price will follow. What needs to be done is to find market share and other commodity prices so that farmers are not poor. ," he said.

Haerul Warisin also mentioned that the farmers' grain and rice commodities were not accommodated.

"Don't import it, instead of importing at high prices, it is better to empower local farmers, of course helping to reduce the poverty rate. Likewise when there is a PKH aid distribution program, it includes rice and others," he said.

According to him, the local government should buy rice produced by farmers, which has been purchased and stocked by Bulog, because if Bulog continues to store it, hundreds of thousands of tons of it can have fleas. It's just that the government cannot empower it.

According to Haerul Warisin again, at this time Bulog is no longer functioned as a state-owned institution that stabilizes rice prices, but seems to be privatized.

"Cook to import rice, whereas in NTB, for example, there is a surplus of grain and rice, all you have to do is buy the produce from the farmers," he also said.

Iron as he is familiarly called, hopes that the NTB Provincial Government can reduce the poverty rate, by empowering BUMDs to buy farmers' products, in collaboration with Bulog.

"If this can be done, there will be no farmers complaining, poverty can be reduced," he said again.