Govt Still Gives Less Attention to Agriculture

Jakarta, March 22 (ANTARA Lampung) - Researcher of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) Imaduddin Abdullah said the government was still giving less attention to the agricultural sector.

"The government so far gave second priority to the agricultural sector although it plays a great role in contributing to the country's gross domestic product (GDP)," Abdullah said here on Sunday.

He said that the agricultural sector contributed 14 percent to the GDP while its contribution to workers' absorption reached 35 percent.

Therefore, many Indonesian people still rely on the agricultural sector, he added.

"However, the growth of the agricultural sector is still far below the growth of national GDP, namely only about 4.2 percent," he said.

If the government is to develop the agricultural sector seriously based on the principles of Nawacita (sovereignty, independence and personality), it should pay attention to the agricultural sector and find solutions to agricultural problems.

Based on a data expose, other sectors which contribute to the GDP included mining (10 percent), construction (10 percent), trade (14 percent), transportation and communications (4 percent) and processing industry (22 percent).

On workers absorption, the social service sector contributes 16 percent, financial service three percent, transportation four percent, trade 32 percent, construction six percent, industries 13 percent and mining one percent.

The government this year has set a fund of Rp22 trillion in its state budget to finance its agriculture development such as improving the irrigation system and providing farmers with agricultural tools.

As Indonesia has a dry season, irrigation is vital for its rice fields. The Ministry of Agriculture will improve the country's rice irrigation system by repairing damaged ones.

Almost 50 percent of the country's irrigation systems which channel water supplies to some 4.4 million hectares of rice fields are damaged.

According to Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman, his ministry will prioritize the repair of damaged irrigation channels to provide water to three million hectares of rice.

Thus, according Minister Sulaiman, with a fund amounting to Rp22 trillion, the Ministry of Agriculture is committed to meeting the needs of farmers in order to encourage them in increasing productivity.

In the past four months of Jokowi's government, the agriculture minister has taken a number of strategic steps to assist farmers, including the handing over of 10 thousand hand tractors to farmers.

The government is committed to providing as many as 41,000 hand tractors to farmers across the country, besides other harvesting tools.

"This is the first assistance of its kind since the country gained its independence," the minister pointed out.