We have been dancing on farmers poverty

WE HAVE BEEN DANCING ON FARMER’S POVERTY

By: WayanWindia*

Corona Virus has brought us to a new realization, that we have to return to Agriculture. We’ve been having number of online seminars. We have been having talks on the issues back and forth, but at the end of the day we have to return to develop agriculture sector. We can have everything, mall, hotel, villa or company. Yet we can’t not eat. This country would be in chaos in this pandemic if there was no food available.

Discussing agriculture development, essentially, we consider two important issues. They are poverty eradication and income and regional distribution. We have been very focused on growth, human development index (HDI), however we have never put a serious effort in equality of distribution. Seemingly, we have been force-fed by western concept of economy though Pancasila calls a social equality for people.

If we encouraged government to develop agriculture sector, it would be reflected on budget politics. FAO recommends that ten percent of government budget should be allocated for agriculture sector. Perhaps only Suharto, the second president of Indonesia, was bold enough to allocate a huge amount of budget for this sector (around 10%), which now we have seen the outcome of its development process.

Nowadays, for the sake of preventing a skyrocketing inflation, we have been pleased to live in comfortable zone and with a low-priced agricultural product, especially rice where its price has been regulated by the government. Even a little bit of turmoil, the government would be prepared to do an import. Rice warehouse was reserved to push the price down. Farmers have to be ready to live in poverty and we have been joyously dancing on farmers’ grave.

A farmer’s income who grows a hectare of rice paddy for one growing season (4 months) is approximately 15 million rupiahs. This income is not included the cost of labor usage in a family and the cost of land leasing. In other words, a farmer would get cash as much as 3.75 million rupiahs per month. That amount of cash is comparable to construction worker’s income or even to a beggar. If this situation continues, who would be interested in being a farmer? It is not surprising that the land use change has rapidly increases (roughly 1% per year). It does make sense if young generations wouldn’t hop into a farmer. Only an idealistic person who would want to be a farmer.

To date, the country is not in favor of farmer (producer). The country has been on the consumer side. Consumers have been lullabied with a low-priced agricultural product. People who are used to live cozily would be difficult to get used to live in uncomfortable life. The business people would noisily rant if the price of agricultural product escalates. They would argue, it affects inflation and regional minimum wage (RMW). Capitalistic business people wouldn’t want their profit fall off. They keep dancing on farmer’s poverty.

A surge of RMW shouldn’t be a concern. If a company is not efficient, leave it alone to declare its bankruptcy. One who is thrown away from either secondary or tertiary sector, would definitely hop in to agricultural sector. Moreover, the working environment in primary sector (agriculture) is certainly attractive and rewarding. The fact that now when the Corona pandemic has been striking, rice paddy field or marginal land, which was “asleep” for quite long time, is now seriously utilized after number of people has been thrown out from tertiary sector. This issue was reported by a researcher from Nagoya University, Dr. Naori Miyasawa who has been living in Bali for 2 years for Subak and Agro-tourism study.

Soybean and garlic growers are also devastated. It is because the country is still having a pleasant time on the consumer’s side. The analogous thing occurs to sugarcane grower. As long as the country (government) is still in favor of consumer, undoubtedly, the agriculture sector would be destroyed eventually. The Nobel laureate from Venezuela, Professor Tum stated that if the government doesn’t pay enough attention on agriculture sector, this sector will be torn down and crushed by globalization. If this sector destroyed, it would be tremendously difficult to restore it. It would be excessively expensive to remake a rice paddy field from a manufacture or a hotel.

In a long term, agriculture sector will be a favorite sector in national development. We have a solid potency in developing agriculture sector. It leads us to dominate agricultural product market in South East Asia or even in Asia. People needs to eat and we have the physical, social and culture potencies to build agriculture and finally to be able to feed Asia region. The only issue is are we ready to temporally to live in uncomfortable life? For this reason, the intellectual should be able to give an assurance or confidence. It is important to point out that when the government is inclined to farmer (producer), the situation is not instantly better or in order. The development of agriculture sector needs time to be benefited. 

In Japan, the agriculture development starts from developing downstream industry (Agricultural product processing industry). It is the right time to imitate Japan in term of developing downstream industry and focused on on-farm farmer (producer). In my view, many countries in the world can live and survive from agriculture sector (agribusiness), e.g. New Zealand, Australia and Vietnam. When will we realize for that?

*) Author, Professor Emeritus in Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Udayana

The chairman of advisory board in Yayasan Made Sanggra, Sukawati

(Published : at Bali Tribune Daily, at June 19, 2020.