To date around 45 thousand out of the targeted 65 thousand farmer groups across the country had received aid to develop agribusiness in their respective villages, Agriculture Minister Suswono said in Serang, Banten province, on Saturday.
"We will go ahead with the PUAP program. Hopefully, the target can be achieved in two to three years` time," he said following a dialog on PUAP program.
Since 2008 the government had distributed Rp1 trillion among 10,000 farmer groups in the country`s 33 provinces per year to develop the program, he said.
He said PUAP was a self-reliant people`s empowerment program (PNPM-Mandiri) to reduce poverty and unemployment rates by developing agribusiness according to the potentials of each region, he said.
The program which was launched in 2008 was a form of business capital assistance for members of farmer groups including farm land owners and workers as well as farmer households.(*)
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Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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