Rizal Ramli: The Government Failed To Take Advantage Of West Java's Great Potential In The Agricultural Sector

Capture the screen of senior economist, Rizal Ramli. (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - Senior economist Rizal Ramli said West Java has great potential in agriculture. Moreover, supported by sufficient sun conditions and plenty of water to flow the rice fields. However, unfortunately the central and local governments do not support this.

"So there is a lot of space and opportunity for West Java to be superior in the agricultural sector. So the food basket for Java Island and even for Indonesia. Unfortunately the national and regional governments of West Java are not interested in developing agriculture seriously," he said, in a virtual discussion. , Thursday, July 23.

The government, said Rizal, should reflect on the Netherlands. He explained that the Netherlands, with a country that is almost the size of West Java, could become the world's number two exporter for the agricultural sector.

Rizal said that the condition of West Java, starting from the climate, land, to a large enough water source, strongly supports this province to be like the Netherlands, which puts forward agriculture. Moreover, he said, by increasing agriculture in this area, the regional income sources will also be varied.

"We learned from the Netherlands. The Netherlands is as big as West Java, it turns out that in some agricultural products, vegetables are the number two exporter in the world. Including flowers and so on. The economic strength of West Java, agriculture should be much more prominent," he explained.

In times of crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Rizal, all countries in the world will experience food problems, including Indonesia. Therefore, he suggested, that the government prioritize West Java to become an agricultural province.

"West Java should be a priority because the people are happy to be farmers. Many are diligent farmers," he said.

Moreover, said Rizal, making West Java a large agricultural province would not only increase agricultural production, but also reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

"The positive risk of agricultural areas and farmers (COVID-19) is much smaller than the industrial sector," he explained.

Riza also encouraged the West Java regional government to be more creative and side with the people in the midst of the crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to him, an easy focus during this crisis period is agriculture.

"The northern part of West Java which is towards the West and East, especially the South, is relatively backward. For decades, there has been no significant change in South West Java. It is still very poor, infrastructure is still limited. Whereas if it is developed West Java will have various economic variations. sorts, "he said.