Day: January 24, 2023

Head of the West Java Manpower and Transmigration Office Rachmat Taufik Garsadi stated that his office is targeting to send 60 millennial farmers as apprentices to Japan.

“Our target is to support millennial farmers. We have trained 60 people. Hopefully, we can send those 60 people to Japan for apprenticeships,” Garsadi stated when contacted on Tuesday.

The West Java provincial government has implemented the Millennial Farmer Program, with the objective of developing the province’s young farmers in various agriculture commodities.

Garsadi is upbeat that those millennial farmers would later share the knowledge that they obtained in Japan with members of the younger generation that are keen to become farmers.

“We hope, after they join apprenticeships there, the output is they will have skills and networks. Thus, once they return here, they can become an example for the younger generation,” he stated.

According to the office head, millennial farmers would show the younger generation that despite living in villages, they can have the same income as people in urban areas, and through e-commerce, their businesses can go global.

Currently, products of millennial farmers are sold at Millennial Farmer Outlets at several locations, such as the Cihampelas Walk mall in Bandung City, Botani Square mall in Bogor City, and Bandung Train Station. The products sold include honey, coffee, palm sugar, and lime juice.

The presence of those Millennial Farmer Outlets is expected to boost the enthusiasm of millennial farmers in driving their productivity, as their products can foray into premium markets.

Main Expert Policy Analyst at the Regional Secretariat of West Java Province Dewi Sartika stated that the Millennial Farmer Outlets align with West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil’s mission to produce young farmers whose products could be marketed.

“Thus, we do not only develop the millennial farmers but also assist them, (provide) capital assistance, including in marketing. These outlets are a concrete form of facilitation in marketing,” she remarked.

Sartika further noted that the Millennial Farmer Program is expected to tackle the problem of limited labor by increasing productivity and achieving food self-sufficiency in West Java. The opportunity is relatively vast if pursued by young farmers, who are creative and tend to master digital technology, she stated.

Source: Antara News

Founder and former president director of philanthropic organization Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) Ahyudin has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for embezzling compensation meant for Lion Air crash victims’ kin.

While announcing their verdict at South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday, a panel of judges headed by Hariyadi found Ahyudin guilty of embezzling social funds disbursed by the Boeing Community Investment Fund (BCIF) as compensation for relatives of 189 victims of a Lion Air 610 crash in October 2018.

The verdict was consistent with the prosecutors’ indictment that Ahyudin had violated Article 374 of the Criminal Code in conjunction with Article 55, Paragraph (1), Section 1 of the Criminal Code. However, the sentence awarded by the judges was lighter than the one demanded by the prosecutors.

The judges’ panel observed that the defendant’s action caused public outrage and losses, particularly for the next-of-kin of the Lion Air crash victim and other recipients entitled to receive the money, and this was an aggravating factor in considering the sentence.

However, the judges also took into account that the defendant was straightforward, admitted his mistake, has a family, and has never received a prison sentence.

Responding to the sentence, Ahyudin and his legal representative sought seven days to consider whether to appeal the verdict.

Last December, the prosecutors demanded that Ahyudin and other co-defendants—Ibnu Khajar, ACT president director in 2019–2022, and Hariyana Hermain, ACT vice president for operations—be sentenced to four years in prison.

The prosecutors found all of them guilty of embezzling the compensation disbursed by BCIF for the relatives of the Lion Air 610 crash victims.

They further discovered that out of the Rp138,546,388,500 (US$8.86 million) in compensation received by ACT from BCIF, the philanthropic organization only distributed Rp20,563,857,503 (US$1.31 million) to the victims’ relatives and other beneficiaries.

The remaining Rp117 billion (US$7.55 million) was used by the defendants in ways that were not authorized under the agreement with Boeing, they added.

Source: Antara News

Chief of the Presidential Staff (KSP) Moeldoko proposed collaboration between countries to build an early warning system related to climate change in order to tackle the threat of a global food crisis.

“The impact of climate change is already being felt by the community. Therefore, the anticipatory steps are very important. I suggest cooperation between each country’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) regarding the early warning system to handle this crisis,” Moeldoko said in a statement received here, Tuesday.

The statement was delivered by Moeldoko at the report launch of the Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition organized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

FAO considers Indonesia to be a leading light that is able to maintain food security for its 275 million people during a pandemic, for instance, with the government’s strategic policies during a pandemic that had a positive impact on the agricultural sector from 2020 to 2022.

In addition, the increase in exports of agricultural products by 10.52 percent, from US$4.24 billion in 2021 to US$4.69 billion in 2022, also spotlighted Indonesia’s capability.

Moeldoko highlighted that the Indonesian government had implemented a land access policy for farmers through agrarian reform, farmer regeneration, development of alternative sorghum foods, and various action programs to adapt to climate change.

These efforts have yielded results, one of which is the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) in 2022 that recorded Indonesia’s Food Security Index had strengthened at the level of 60.2 or higher as compared to the 2020-2021 period, he stated.

With significant results through efforts to deal with the food, feed, fuel, fertilizer and finance (5F) crisis, Indonesia has emerged as one of the pilot countries. However, Moeldoko reminded of the importance of global cooperation, as Indonesia cannot work alone.

“Multinational cooperation to form a global food security ecosystem is the key to handle the food crisis. Indonesia continues to push for this in the G20 Presidency by reaching an agreement on sustainable and resilient agriculture and food systems. Indonesia also continues to oversee its implementation and strengthen this commitment in the region through the ASEAN chairmanship in 2023,” he affirmed.

The KSP chief noted that with the implementation of this global agreement, food security and fulfillment of global nutrition would show positive progress.

The report of “Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2022 – Urban Food Systems and Nutrition” published by FAO, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO emphasized the threat of hunger and urban malnutrition due to the impact of the pandemic, poverty, and rapid uncontrolled population growth.

FAO Senior Food Safety and Nutrition Officer Sridhar Dharmapuri stated that almost 1.9 million people were unable to buy healthy and nutritious food in 2020.

“This is very ironic, considering that Asia and the Pacific region are among the largest producing regions for key commodities, such as rice, fish, milk, and others, but we still fail to serve nutritious food to all people in this region. It means that there is a problem with the agricultural system that we have now,” Dharmapuri stated.

Source: Antara News

The Agriculture Ministry has said that the production target for rice this year is 54.5 million tons, the same as the target set last year.

“(The production targets for other commodities include) Corn with a moisture content of 27 percent of 23.05 million tons, soybeans with 370 thousand tons, and chilies 2.93 million tons,” secretary general of the ministry Kasdi Subagyono said during a meeting with Commission IV of the House of Representatives, which was followed from here on Tuesday.

The target for shallots is 1.71 million tons, garlic 45.45 thousand tons, coffee 810 thousand tons, cocoa 780 thousand tons, sugarcane 37.15 million tons, coconut 2.99 million tons, beef 465.15 thousand tons, and chicken meat 3.87 million tons.

Most of the production targets for agricultural commodities in 2023 are not much different compared to those set in 2022.

The target for rice in 2022 was 54.5 million tons, with the realization reaching 55.44 million tons.

The target for corn production was 23.1 million tons, with the realization reaching 25.18 million tons; soybeans 280 thousand tons, with the realization recorded at 300 thousand tons; shallots 1.64 million tons, with the realization registered at 1.72 million tons.

The chilies production target was 2.87 million tons, but the realization was only 2.73 million tons. The target for sugarcane was 34.99 million tons, coffee 790 thousand tons, beef/buffalo meat 440 thousand tons, and chicken meat 3.54 million tons, with the realization reaching 3.77 million tons.

He informed that the main efforts to increase agricultural productivity in 2023 will cover the food crop, horticulture, plantation, and livestock sectors.

“For the Directorate General of Food Crops, (the efforts will include) the optimization of rice planting index improvement, development of biofortified rice, development of corn areas, development of soybeans, and development of integrated farming,” he elaborated.

Then, in the horticulture sector, the ministry will develop horticultural villages, agro-industry, seed production, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and sustainable food yards.

“(The other efforts will cover) Plantations, smallholder household corporations, seed production of 15 million stems, and development of coffee, coconut, cashew, cocoa, and areca nut areas,” Subagyono informed.

The efforts will also cover improving the downstreaming of areca nut exports, developing farmer-cooperation-based sago, pushing for self-sufficiency in sugar consumption, and developing non-cane sugar, stevia, palm sugar, and coconut.

As for livestock, the ministry will optimize the reproduction and handling of foot-and-mouth disease, development of goat and sheep cooperatives, swallow’s nests, beef cattle based on grazing, and the integration of cattle and palm oil, as well as the development of corporate cattle villages, and the optimization of reproduction and handling of PMK.

The ministry’s program for those developments will be supported by Rp15.32 trillion in the 2023 budget ceiling, plus an additional automatic adjustment of Rp1.05 trillion.

Source: Antara News