Lampung farmers need protection
Lampung farmers need protection
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung, Lampung
With no protection from the government, farmers in Lampung are
having a difficult time surviving a time of economic hardship.
Over the last few years, thousands of farmers have cut down
their coffee plants to grow rice because of falling coffee prices
both at home and abroad.
The farmers now have to deal with the falling price of
unhusked rice during the current harvest.
The local office of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) has set
the price of unhusked rice at Rp 1,200 (14 US cents) per
kilogram, but in reality the price has dropped to between Rp 700
and Rp 900 per kilogram.
Both Bulog's local office and the local agricultural office
have declined to take responsibility for the falling prices,
instead blaming the farmers for failing to hold their harvested
rice to avoid flooding the market.
Tugiran, 45, a resident of Gunungsugih village in Central
Lampung, said he was losing money on his paddy, which he cut down
his coffee plants to grow.
"I invested Rp 2.5 million per hectare but I'm only making Rp
3 million per hectare. We are suffering losses because a profit
of Rp 500,000 per hectare is not worth the energy and the three
months my family and I spent growing the paddy," he said.
He said he sold his unhusked rice at between Rp 700 and Rp 800
per kilogram.
Sunarto, a resident of Seputihrman village in Central Lampung,
criticized the local administration for not protecting farmers in
the regency.
Production costs have risen to Rp 2.5 million per hectare from
Rp 1.5 million because of the rising cost of anti-pest chemicals
and fertilizers.
Farmers in East Lampung and Tulang Bawang are having a more
difficult time than those in other regencies, because many paddy
fields in the regencies were damaged by flooding in January and
February and the farmers took out bank loans to purchase
chemicals and fertilizers for their fields.
"Many farmers failed to harvest their crops which were damaged
by floods during the rainy season," said Romlani, a resident of
Tumijajar village in Tulang Bawanng regency.
Ramli, a farmer in Trimurjo village in Central Lampung, said
all of the farmers in the regency were upset because they did not
see any concrete action on the part of the local authorities to
control the falling price of rice.
According to investigations by The Jakarta Post, the fall in
the price of unhusked rice has to do with both overproduction and
middlemen who have formed a syndicate to monopolize the price of
the commodity.
Part of Bulog's responsibility is to protect prices and
monitor middlemen it has appointed to purchase rice directly from
farmers.
However, the chief of the Food Resiliency Agency's local
office, Joko Umarsaid, called on farmers to hold back some of
their harvests to avoid flooding the market, which would force
prices down even further.
"Farmers should hold back between 20 percent and 50 percent of
their harvest to avoid any further falls in the price of paddy
during the next harvest season," he said, adding that the local
administration had disbursed Rp 5.7 billion to village
cooperatives to help stabilize rice prices.
The chief of the local Bulog office, Saldi Supardji, said
Bulog had purchased 76,000 tons of unhusked rice from farmers,
and its ultimate target was to purchase 125,000 tons, or 5
percent, of the province's total rice production.
He added that he had appointed a team to look into the falling
prices.
Asrian Hendicaya, an economist at Lampung University, called
on Bulog to play a larger role in stabilizing rice prices in the
local market.
"Bulog should be able to play a double role as a supplier
during the harvest season and as a distributor during the off
season, in an effort to maintain the balance between demand and
supply during all seasons," he said.