Day: September 13, 2021

Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has assured that the government is still able to guarantee food availability for the public with the “promising” production of 11 main food commodities.

“Alhamdulillah (praise be to Allah), the government can secure the availability of 11 main food commodities for 273 million Indonesians,” the vice president remarked at the Vice President’s Palace here on Monday.

The 11 food commodities are rice, corn, onions, garlic, large chili, cayenne pepper, beef, chicken, chicken eggs, granulated sugar, and cooking oil.

Amin affirmed that national rice production is “very promising” so food availability for the public is guaranteed.

“National rice production in the last two years has also been favorable. Until the third week of August 2021, rice stocks reached 7.6 million tons,” he revealed.

The condition of food stocks in the country is quite conducive as it is followed by an increase in the performance of agricultural exports from Indonesia, Amin said.

Citing data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the vice president said agricultural exports in January-July 2021 reached US$2.24 billion, an increase of 8.72 percent compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo stated that his ministry would continue to strengthen cooperation with local governments and create policies to fulfill people’s needs for food.

“Stimulus and action plans must continue to be carried out so that the sector keeps growing positively until it becomes a savior for the country to be not trapped in a prolonged economic recession,” Limpo explained.

The Agriculture Ministry has established five measures for increasing agricultural production: enhancing production capacity through mechanization, building efficiency and using appropriate technological approaches, local food diversification, strengthening food reserves and logistics systems and the Triple Export Movement (Gratieks), he noted.

“Synergy between the center and the region is important so that there is no more development inequality between them, or with one to the other region,” he said.

Source: Antara News

Destructive Fishing Watch (DFW) Indonesia has sought a paradigm change in the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry’s Regulation No. 33 of 2021 on the management of fishery boat crew.

“The paradigm of fishery boat crew protection has not changed much within the regulation since it only took into account the protection aspect of manpower involved in fishery operations,” DFW Indonesia’s national coordinator, Moh Abdi Suhufan, stated here on Monday.

Suhufan highlighted that one of the problems with the management of fishery boat crew thus far was the lack of transparency and fairness in the recruitment system.

“The fishery boat crew recruitment system and mechanism had been very non-transparent thus far, replete with frauds, informality, involvement of brokers, and bribery,” he expounded.

Hence, he expressed disappointment that the regulation did not dictate a fair fishery boat crew recruitment process.

“A regulation has to be put in place if the recruitment is conducted directly by the boat owners and if it is done through agents,” Suhufan emphasized.

He stressed that if the recruitment was conducted through agents, then the boat owners or corporations should have an official written contract with the agent that involve the provision of recruitment service.

Boat owners or corporations should also ensure that the recruited fishery boat crew understand their terms of employment and agree to them voluntarily and without a threat of penalty.

Meanwhile, DFW Indonesia researcher Laode Hardian noted that, currently, domestic fishery boat operations were conducted through official ports and tangkahan (unofficial fish landing site).

“Oftentimes, these ships did not meet the requirements in terms of the permit, manning, health and safety, and logistics aspects, which resulted in problems between the fishery crews, captains, and boat owners or corporations,” Hardian pointed out.

Hardian highlighted the need for a collective inspection mechanism and regulation to ensure conducive work conditions aboard fishery boats.

“This collective inspection should be conducted by the Fishery Harbormaster, Manpower work unit, and Transportation work unit,” he elaborated.

Hardian opined that the lack of collective inspection had led to several accidents, manpower violations, and fishery crew neglect in domestic fishery boats.

Source: Antara News