Most of the country's poor are farmers: BPS
Most of the country's poor are farmers: BPS
JAKARTA (JP): The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said
yesterday that 95 percent of the nation's poor are farmers.
"Our 1993 agricultural census discovered that the overwhelming
majority of the heads of poor families work in the agricultural
sector, either in rural or urban areas," said Soegiarto, head of
the BPS statistics analysis department.
Soegiarto, who briefed newsmen on the findings of the census,
said 80 percent of the poor people in rural areas and 26 percent
of the poor in urban areas are farmers.
According to the census, the number of people still living
below the poverty line declined to 25.9 million last year from
27.2 million in 1990.
The poverty line for last year was defined as a minimum per
capita calorie intake of 2,100 a day plus non-food consumption,
together totaling Rp 27,905 (US$13) per month in urban areas and
Rp 18,244 ($8.5) in rural areas.
"The per capita non-food consumption in urban areas was
estimated at Rp 4,602 per month and that in rural areas at Rp
2,668 per month," Soegiarto said.
Soegiarto said the number of rural people with less than 0.5
hectares of farmland increased from 9.53 million families in 1983
to 10.94 million last year.
"But the census found that farmers with a small plot of land
were not automatically much poorer than those with larger areas
of farmland," he said.
"Those owning small plots seemed to depend increasingly on
non-farm businesses for their earnings," he added.
The government embarked on a more concerted poverty-
alleviation program in 20,633 poor villages last month. During
the current fiscal year, each of these villages will be allocated
Rp 20 million, in what the government called "seed capital" to
help the poor villagers improve their living conditions.
State Minister of National Development Planning/Chairman of
National Development Planning Board Ginandjar Kartasasmita said
in Bandung yesterday that the effort is expected to abolish the
absolute poverty within ten years.
"During the first five years, we hope to reduce the incidence
of poverty by 60 percent," Ginandjar said. (yns)
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