"The government has now provided farmers with seeds and fertilizers," Herman Khaeron of the House of Representatives (DPR)`s Commission IV on agriculture, said here on Sunday.
The legislator said that subsidy budget for farmers in 2012 amounted to Rp15 trillion.
Herman, who is also chairman of the agriculture department of the Executive Board of the ruling Democrat Party (PD), said that not all of farmers had been reached by the subsidy program.
"Yet, gradually the government wants the subsidy program to gradually reach all farmers in Indonesia. I think this would give direct compensation when the government raised fuel oil prices on April 1, 2012," he said.
He said that the seeds and fertilizer subsidies was a form of the government`s direct intervention to alleviate the burden of farmers.
"If fuel price increases, expenditure will be heavier. Therefore, the government is doing intervention to alleviate their burdens," he said. This action is part of the efforts to salvage the state. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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