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)

Editorial -- Page 4