According to information received here, one of the farmers, who conversed with President Jokowi, said that encouraging the regeneration of farmers is a collective task.
He noted that most youngsters nowadays tended to gravitate towards industrial careers rather than agriculture.
"The mindset of young people now is that employments are in industry and not agriculture," he stated.
However, the farmer said that in his area, there are associations of farmers' children, who were interested in the agriculture sector, although the number was quite low.
West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, who came along the president, also noted that his administration currently had a millennial farmer program to encourage young people to be involved in agriculture.
Other farmers also expressed concern for the future of the agricultural sector if the efforts to conduct regeneration did not get pushed from now on.
The farmer, who claimed to be 29 years of age, expressed concern that he would be the last generation of farmers.
"Afraid that your children do not want to be farmers?" the governor asked.
"Yes, because they see the others like that, sir, so it is a 'well, whatever. What do you want to be?'. Sometimes I ask children, none want to be a farmer, sir. (They either) want to be police, governor," the farmer remarked.
In response to that, the president said that youth nowadays were more likely to engage in garden crop cultivation than agriculture.
"(Young people) usually like melons, corn, hydroponics, things like that," the president noted.
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Translator: Gilang Galiartha, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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