Farmers' savings uncertain<\/p>\n
Clove farmers rejoiced over the announcement last July that
\ntheir compulsory savings would be reimbursed by the privately-
\ncontrolled Clove Monopoly Board before the end of this year.
\nAfter all, they have waited for almost three years for the
\nrepayment of the savings.<\/p>\n
The farmers became more excited after Hutomo Mandala Putra,
\nthe board's chairman, made a series of visits to the major clove
\nproducing provinces over the last few weeks aboard a private jet
\nin the company of the cooperatives minister, House members and a
\ntroupe of journalists to initiate the handing over of the
\nfarmers' savings deposits through village cooperatives.<\/p>\n
However, the great fanfare with which the transfer ceremonies
\nwere held in the provinces gave way to shocking news after the
\nSavings Control Board, set up to supervise and manage the
\nreimbursement of the savings, announced the administrative
\nrequirements for the reimbursement.<\/p>\n
The preliminary screening concluded that farmers would be
\nentitled to only about 40 percent of the Rp 251.1 billion
\n(US$115.2 million) in compulsory savings collected from clove
\nsales over the last three years. The Minister of Cooperatives and
\nSmall Enterprises, Subiakto Tjakrawardana, himself confirmed at a
\nhearing with the House of Representatives last month that the
\nclove farmers would get little more than 30 percent of the
\naccumulated savings. The remainder would become the assets of
\nvillage cooperatives and the Federation of Village Cooperatives.<\/p>\n
The problem, according to the board, was that a large number
\nof farmers simply could not meet the administrative requirements.
\nThe farmers are required to produce documents certifying the size
\nof their clove plantations, the number of their clove trees and
\nthe volume of their harvests, cooperative membership cards, clove
\nsales invoices from cooperatives, and property tax receipts.<\/p>\n
Although the administrative procedures are meant to ensure
\nthat those savings will be returned to the right farmers, those
\nrequirements are understandably seen by many farmers as an excuse
\nto cheat them out of their hard-earned savings. The first
\npuzzling question is why the requirements had not been set out
\nand publicly announced at the outset of the monopoly board's
\noperations in early 1991.<\/p>\n
When the monopoly board was set up and the government fixed
\nthe floor producer price of cloves at Rp 7,900 per kilogram, it
\nwas the government that forced the farmers to put the savings
\ninto the account of the board. For each kilogram the farmers sold
\nto the board through their village cooperatives, they received
\nonly Rp 4,000 because Rp 1,900 in compulsory savings and another
\nRp 2,000 in compulsory equity shares in their village
\ncooperatives were held back by the monopoly board. The compulsory
\ndeductions were not made within a well-organized savings campaign
\namong the farmers, but were prompted simply by the inability of
\nthe board to pay the farmers the full floor price.<\/p>\n
The elaborate procedures imposed by the Savings Control Board
\nimply an extreme lack of trust in the village cooperatives, which
\nare supposed to be the most knowledgeable with regards to their
\nfarmer members. The requirements regarding documents on clove
\nplantations and their produce seem to ignore the problems usually
\nencountered by the farmers in coping with formal procedures. They
\nalso show that the government believes more in formal than in
\nmaterial truth. We would not be surprised if the village
\nadministration offices were soon inundated by farmers applying
\nfor the necessary documents. In such a process, it is the farmers
\nwho usually get squeezed by the bureaucrats.<\/p>\n
The government also seemed to be oblivious to the fact that
\nthe farmers' inability to fulfill the procedures was caused in
\npart by the poor management of the monopoly board. The farmers
\nhad often been forced to sell their cloves to middlemen because
\ntheir cooperatives did not get enough procurement funds from the
\nmonopoly board. We also wonder why the government seems to be so
\nblind to the normal practice in the rural areas whereby farm
\nlaborers often get their wages in the form of cloves. Obviously,
\nthese farm laborers cannot produce documents certifying their
\nclove plantations.<\/p>\n
We are afraid that if the government does not properly handle
\nthe reimbursement of the farmers' savings, their trust in
\ngovernment policy and even in their own village cooperatives will
\nbe adversely affected. The more damaging would be the impact if
\nthe Rp 484 billion in equity funds already collected from the
\nclove farmers over the last three years were not well managed and
\nproperly accounted for by the village cooperatives.<\/p>\n
Such apprehension is not groundless. Sugar cane farmers also
\nhave been forced over the last few years to contribute Rp 1,000
\nfrom the price of every kilogram of the sugar they sell to the
\nNational Logistics Agency for equity shares in new sugar mills.
\nThe fate of those equity funds is not clear up to now.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/farmers-savings-uncertain-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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