Farmers quit growing rice

BEKASI: About 300 people in Bekasi regency had left farming to for other work due to the lack of water, the high price of fertilizer and the low selling price of unhusked rice, a local councillor said.

Atak Suryadi from the National Mandate Party (PAN) told Antara on Monday that farmers also found it difficult to obtain capital to cover the operational costs to work the land.

Within a period of six months, a one-hectare plot of farmland can yield about four tons of unhusked rice, or eight tons a year.

The operational costs to grow the rice for the whole year is Rp 9 million, while eight tons of rice sells for some Rp 16 million. Therefore, life would be hard for a farmer's family as they would be unable to make ends meet.

Asep, 50, who owns two-hectare rice field in Tambelang village, said that he had changed his profession because he could not feed his wife and five children from growing rice. --Antara