More jobs expected in agriculture

JAKARTA (JP): The government's recent policy to reduce import duties on agricultural products will help the country boost agricultural growth and increase the number of jobs in the agricultural sector, the Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said here yesterday.

He said in a hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR) that the country's agricultural industry was expected to grow by 3.4 percent annually during the current Five Year Development Plan (Repelita VI) period.

The agricultural growth is expected to be supported by an expansion of 2.5 percent in crops and horticulture, 6.4 percent in animal husbandry, 5.2 percent in fisheries and 4.2 in plantation production, he said.

The government, under its deregulatory measures announced last month, has lowered import duties on 257 agricultural commodities, including 19 products whose imports are under the monopoly of the National Logistic Agency (Bulog).

The commodities monopolized by Bulog include wheat flour, rice flour, yellow soybean, sugar cane, brown sugar and jute.

The minister said the duty reduction will substantially cut costs for agricultural production.

Production costs for animal feed, for example, will be reduced by 30 percent, he said.

Sjarifudin said the policy is also expected to increase the number of people employed in the agricultural sector by one percent per year, from 36.5 million as of last March to 38 million at the end of the Repelita VI period.

The agricultural sector does not include the forestry industry.

With regard to rice production, the minister said that the country will have to increase its output of unhusked rice by 2.01 percent per annum from 48.2 million tons last fiscal year to 53.2 million tons in 1998-99 in order to maintain its self- sufficiency. (09)