"There are two reasons why farmers are not able to improve their welfare. The first one is that the conversion of agricultural land into non-agricultural purposes and the second is that land damage due to natural disasters so that the land could not be cultivated into productive land," HKTI Secretary General Benny Pasaribu said here on Sunday.
He predicted that the acreage of agricultural land which was transformed into industrial area or resettlement reached 100,000 hectares per annum.
"Natural disaster destroyed tens of hectares of agricultural land every year," he added.
He said that the declining of the agricultural land impoverished farmers. After all, up to now, there was no single policy which was able to improve the welfare of farmers.
"Even if now the government is increasing the acreage of agricultural land, yet it would not exceed 3,000 hectares per annum," he added.
He said that it was now time the government protect and empower farmers whose number accounted for 70 percent of the population which was about 240 million.
(A014)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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