"We have made calculations regarding strategic commodities such as cacao, rubber, coffee, tea and nutmeg. There are old plants in this sector which need rejuvenation," Amran Sulaiman said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said the government is preparing to offer microloan credit (KUR) worth Rp30 trillion to rejuvenate strategic commodity plantations in 2016.

"We have made calculations regarding strategic commodities such as cacao, rubber, coffee, tea and nutmeg. There are old plants in this sector which need rejuvenation," the minister said here on Tuesday.

Amran said the government has formulated a plan that will involve Rp104 trillion worth of total financing. This amount will be used for rejuvenating old strategic plantations in the coming seven years. "We hope they will all become productive again," he said.

He said such rejuvenation program has been useful in case of rubber, also a strategic plantation, where the product is an export commodity. Rubber plants that are more than 25 years old needed rejuvenation.

"We will open the domestic market for rubber produced from plants that are now aging. The step is aimed at improving rubber prices," noted Amran.

The minister said other efforts include providing maize, soybean and rice seeds for replanting. Seeds for strategic crops will be provided to farmers lest they end up being left idle.

"As for the rubber farmers, they can plant maize side by side to their rubber plants and thus make some extra earnings. Their monthly income from tapping rubber is about Rp1.4 million as of now, but if they plant maize, they can earn a monthly income of Rp3 trillion - Rp4 million," he said.

Minister Amran said the government will discuss matters related to KUR credits in the next coordination meeting. The step will help make plantations more productive by rejuvenating them.

"We will discuss it again in the coming one or two weeks so that the KUR credit can actually be channeled to a productive sector, not to other sectors," he said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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