"The Alliance for Prosperous Villages reaffirms the need to protect small-scale food producers amid the economic slowdown, global free trade, and climate change," Jatmiko pointed out here on Friday.
He noted that farmers, fishermen, and small peasants should serve as the driving force to achieve food sovereignty, which was once promised by President Joko Widodo.
Jatmiko said the government now still appeared to be repeating the mistakes committed by previous governments, such as only attempting to boost production.
He stressed the lack of protection being offered to 26 million farmers families and 2.2 million traditional fishermen as is evident by a decrease in their production land by 110 thousand hectares per annum and the reduction of fishing areas as a result of conservation and reclamation activities.
"There is also a failure in identifying the role of women in the production system, particularly in the fishery sector," he pointed out.
Earlier, the Indonesia for Global Justice stated that economic liberalism had disturbed the food price stability in the country, and so, the government should keep away from that concept.
"Market liberalism that is taking place in the 21st century economic era has eliminated the states control over the food sovereignty system," Riza Damanik, the executive director of the Indonesia for Global Justice, noted on Tuesday, October 13.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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