JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has a dialogue with millennial generation farmers about the bright prospects of the porang commodity during his visit to PT Asia Prima Konjac, Madiun, East Java, Thursday, August 19.
One of the young farmers who told President Jokowi was Yoyok Triyono, who is the third generation porang farmer in his family. He followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and father to become a farmer.
Yoyok told President Jokowi about how tempting the prospect of cultivating tubers, which was on the rise, attracted the interest of young people in Madiun to cultivate it.
"Millennial farmers, young farmers in our village (Madiun) in the past graduated from school looking for work in the city. If not now, sir, graduated from school and became a porang farmer, three years of struggling porang farming, after three years of bringing home a car," said Yoyok. as stated in a press statement received by the Presidential Secretariat in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Friday, August 20.
"If you heard the last story, everyone wants to be a porang farmer, maybe later," said President Jokowi accompanied by laughter from the farmers who were present.
Yoyok only started planting porang in 2010 and initially only owned 0.3 hectares of land which was inherited from his father.
Now, Yoyok's land area has reached three hectares. According to him, porang is a very promising commodity because it is not only the tubers that are selling well. In addition, porang is also quite easy to plant.
"Alhamdulillah (in) 2020, the Minister has released the Madiun 1 variety and all of our breeders, sir. So, cultivating the porang plant is planted once, it can be harvested in the second or third year. After that, gradually every year without having to plant again, "explained Yoyok.
Didi Kuswandi, a farmer from Saradan Sub-district, Madiun Regency agrees that the number of young people who want to cultivate porang is also shared by Didi Kuswandi. According to him, currently there are many millennials whose views on farmers have changed.
Porang or in Latin called Amorphopallus Muelleri Blume is a tuber plant that has many advantages. In addition to being low in calories and sugar free, porang can be processed into various food ingredients to cosmetic ingredients.
President Jokowi views this commodity as a promising product and has a bright future.
To young farmers, President Jokowi left a message not only to work on their agricultural land, but also to be able to process it until post-harvest.
He also encouraged farmers to process porang tubers into finished goods, for example into chips, as PT Asia Prima Konjac did at its inception.
"I think processes like that are what the government wants. Don't let it be processed later in Japan, or in China, or in South Korea, or in Europe, no. We have to process it ourselves, there is downstreaming, there is industrialization, so that the added value really exist in the country," said President Jokowi.
Besides being easy to plant and easy to maintain, porang also has a fairly high economic value.
Warsito, a farmer from the slopes of Mount Wilis, told the President that from one hectare of land he could get 15 to 20 tons of porang tubers in a span of 8 months.
"From that figure, how much is the rupiah, if you may know?" asked President Jokowi.
"Approximately Rp. 35-40 million," answered Warsito.
At the end of the dialogue, President Jokowi explained that the government wants to build a mutually beneficial ecosystem where in addition to benefiting the people, the surrounding environment can also be well maintained.
For this reason, he encouraged the Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo, to make a big plan regarding the prospect of porang as a prima donna for new agricultural commodities.
"In the past, because the people around Perhutani were not prosperous, finally what was done was logging. But if this can really develop massively throughout Java or outside Java, I think it will really reduce our community from encroaching on or destroying forests. I think the direction in the future will be like that. It means, indeed this porang is very promising and once again I hope that the Minister has a number of targets that we must have so that these farmers really have a guide to where this porang will go. brought," explained President Jokowi.
Agriculture itself is one sector that can still grow in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The President said that agricultural commodities in the first quarter of 2021 could grow 2.95 percent while other sectors fell.
"Therefore, I continue to convey to the Minister of Agriculture so that this porang is really paid attention to, there are medium and long-term plans, do not let exports be in the form of raw or tubers, if possible the added value is in the country," "said President Jokowi.
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