Farmers Have Rights to Prosper
A farmer checks his rice on a farm in Maguwoharjo village, Sleman, Yogyakarta, Sunday (3/9).
CIREBON, KOMPAS — Farmers and peasants, the backbone of food sovereignty, have not lived a prosperous life. During 72 years of independence, they are the most marginalized group in the national economy and agriculture structure. Today, the agriculture sector is less attractive and left aside.
Farmers are those who control a farmland less than the minimum economic scale or less than 2 hectares. Based on the 2013 Agriculture Census, the number was 22.9 million farm households or 87.63 percent of total farm households.
The majority of them are the owner of less than 0.5 hectares of farmland or peasants. Meanwhile, the farm laborer is the laborer in the agriculture sector. According to the Central Statstics Agency (BPS), the number was 5 million households.
Kompas observed that in some regions in the past week farmers and farm laborers worked hard to make a living. They faced pressures from all sides, from upstream to downstream. This is a classic problem. But there is no immediate solution.
The first problem is that capital is far lower than the minimum economic scale. Second, the risk of harvest failure due to pest or climate change keeps continuing. Third, the government assistance program on agriculture involving aspects such as subsidies and microcredit (KUR) is ineffective. Fourth, farmers have no power to set the selling price.
All those issues lead to subsistent income or, even, insufficient to support the daily life of families.
The option is to stay or to give up. Those who give up leave agriculture and opt for an informal sector in urban areas while those who stay have no choice but to live a hard life in agriculture.
Junari, 59, a farmer in Gegesik district, Cirebon regency, West Java, for example, has worked as a farmer for 40 years. But his life did not change much. In 1977, he worked in the farmland for the first time by hiring land – until now. A small plot of land belonging to his parents was sold when Junari was a boy.
During his work as a farmer, Junari repeatedly experienced harvest failures. Sometimes, the price of unhulled rice dropped below the production costs. A similar situation occurred today. He got loss. Consequently, Junari was unable to repay his debts during the planting season to buy production necessities and to hire Rp 11 million of village-owned land.
Debt
Debt as working capital or daily life support is something common among farmers. The sources of debt can be from anywhere but the bank. Generally, those offering the debt are neighbors, agents of production necessities or moneylenders.
Banks as the channeling agent for microcredit is not a preference among the farmers because of the complicated requirement and procedure that farmers cannot fulfill.
It does not mean the farmers rely on debt. The fact is the farmers generally try to find other alternative sources, of which few exist, normally in the informal sector, which carries uncertainties.
Such a situation was experienced by Dari, 62, a resident in Tegalrejo, Widang district, Tuban regency, East Java. According to Dari, the outcome of the harvest cannot be used to meet the daily needs. As a result, he has tried to get additional income by working as a construction laborer. “Our family wants to live a prosperous life,” he said.
The low income of farmers affects the income of the farm laborers. Based on BPS data, the daily wage for farm laborers increased from Rp 47,985 in July 2016 to Rp 50,003 in July 2017. However, the real wage was almost stagnant, from Rp 37,208 in July 2016 to Rp 37,408 in July 2017.
Not attractive
Tasrif, 55, chairman of Geger Karya Binangun Farmers Group in Kapetakan district, Cirebon regency, said the agriculture sector was becoming less attractive because of its many risks and often times lack of profits. Consequently, several members of the farmers group sold their farmland and switched jobs to improve their earning and prosperity.
Khaerudin, 40, for example, sold his 0.5 hectares of farmland for Rp 150 million five years ago to start a fried snacks business in Jakarta. Another sold 0.35 hectares of farmland to open a repair shop in Bekasi.
The agriculture sector, along with the manufacture and trade sector, is the main pillar to support the national gross domestic product. It is also the sector that absorbs the biggest number of workers after manufacture and trade.
However, the growth of the agriculture sector every year is below the growth of the national economy, at least between 2011 and 2016. Meanwhile, the farmers’ exchange point (NTP), as an indicator of the farmers’ welfare in January-August 2017, was below the value in the same period last year.
The NTP is a ratio between the index of the price received by the farmers and the index of price paid by the farmers. The price index paid by farmers covers all spendings of the farm housholds. An NTP below 100 means the farmer recorded a loss.
Particularly for the food plantation farmers, the NTP was continuously below 100 since April 2016 through July 2017. It means the food plantation farmers recorded losses over 15 years.
Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman, responding to Kompas during a press conference on the 2018 State Budget on Aug. 16, said the welfare of the farmers could not be measured with the monthly NTP, but should be measured annually because food plantations are seasonal.
Amran then referred to the farmers’ activity exchange value (NTUP). The NTUP is the ratio of the index of price received by the farmers and the index of price paid by the farmers, particularly for the farmers’ activity. “The NTUP is never below 100. It is always over 100. The NTUP at present [July 2017] is 109. It means the purchasing power of the farmers is relatively high. It can be seen from the poverty rate and Gini ratio in rural areas, which is declining,” Amran said.
(MKN/ACI/SEM/VIO/ZAK/RAM/DRI/KRN/GER/LAS)
