Agribusiness agency to help eliminate poverty

JAKARTA (JP): A new body within the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday announced an ambitious plan to help eliminate poverty among farmers by promoting their competitive advantages.

The head of the ministry's Agribusiness Agency, Dudung Abdul Adjid, told reporters here that the body would coordinate government policy to develop agriculture-based industries and coordinate investment in these sectors.

The agency will also research agribusiness development, he said.

Dudung said the agency, which was set up last year but whose officials were installed only last week, will recommend reducing government intervention in agricultural development.

"We will encourage farmers to initiate developing their own businesses," he said.

The Indonesian government, the world's largest importer of rice before 1984, has thus far dictated that farmers plant certain crops in a bid to achieve self-sufficiency in food.

When asked about a finding by the Central Bureau of Statistics that 95 percent of the nation's poor people are farmers, Dudung said that the welfare of Indonesian peasants was still far better than their counterparts in other developing countries. (09)