Farmers offered free land-certification<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government has offered farmers free-of-charge
\ncertification for their land as part of a program to help people
\nin rural areas get access to bank loans.<\/p>\n
Most farmers have thus far found it extremely difficult to get
\nbank loans even though they have land as collateral because banks
\naccept only certified land as securities, said Sjamsul Arief
\nRivai, director for natural resources and appropriate technology
\nat the home affairs ministry.<\/p>\n
"We therefore decided to get to the root of the problem by
\nassisting farmers who want to borrow from banks, but have never
\nhad the legal title certificates for their land," Rivai added.<\/p>\n
He was speaking at a seminar here on Tuesday evening where the
\nYogyakarta Task Force for the Empowerment of Small and Medium-
\nscale enterprises and Cooperatives presented an integrated shrimp
\nfarming venture as a pilot project to empower farmers in the
\nsouthern coastal areas of Java.<\/p>\n
Tony Agus Ardie, chief coordinator of the task force,
\ncomplained at the meeting that local farmers in Yogyakarta and
\nseveral other districts in Central Java had long faced
\nbureaucratic barriers in their attempts to partake in the program
\nas banks refused to lend to them.<\/p>\n
"Banks ask for collateral even before assessing the commercial
\nprospects of the borrower. They simply act like pawnshops," Tony
\nlamented.<\/p>\n
Rivai said his directorate had been cooperating with the small
\nenterprises and cooperatives ministry in helping farmers get
\naccess to bank loans by obtaining legal land title certificates,
\nwhich can cost a lot and take a great deal of time to procure
\nwhen dealing with the government officials in charge of issuing
\nsuch certificates.<\/p>\n
"Only land, with legal title, is accepted by banks as security
\nfor loans, but most farmers don't have the money or the technical
\nknowledge to fulfill the procedural requirements for obtaining
\nland title," he added.<\/p>\n
The integrated shrimp aquaculture project, which is being
\ndeveloped by PT Indokor Indonesia through its subsidiary PT
\nIndokor Dayamina in Bantul district in cooperation with the
\nYogyakarta administration and the Gajah Mada University, has been
\ndesigned as a development initiative for prospective shrimp
\nfarmers.<\/p>\n
The farmers involved, through a cooperative, have been
\nexporting shrimp to Singapore, Japan and the United States. The
\nprogram focuses on helping local shrimp farmers and small
\nbusinesses meet the quality standards required by consumers in
\ndeveloped countries such as the Food and Drug Administration in
\nthe U.S.<\/p>\n
Shrimp farming has been considered a greatly promising
\nbusiness, especially on the southern coastal areas of Java, which
\nface the Indian Ocean where the seawater is not as polluted as
\nthe Java Sea off the northern coast.<\/p>\n
The project is helping local farmers and cooperatives by
\nproviding them with production input (young shrimp) and technical
\nand marketing services, but the program has been stalled because
\nmost farmers have been denied bank loans.<\/p>\n
The experience of many other developing countries has indeed
\nshown that strengthening farmers' land rights and easing barriers
\nto land titling (certification) can set in motion a wide range of
\nsocial and economic benefits for rural people.<\/p>\n
A World Bank study last year also concluded that secure land
\ntenure not only provides farmers with incentives to invest in
\ntheir land, such as building terraces and irrigation, thereby
\nincreasing productivity, but also enables them to exchange land
\nrights with less red tape and its associated costs.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/farmers-offered-free-land-certification-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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