Agribusiness agency to help eliminate poverty

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)