Agricom.id, JAKARTA – The government keeps trying to develop the villages in many ways to realize the village economy transformation, such as, by making agriculture corporate.

To realize the idea, Ministry of Agriculture Indonesian Republic through General Directorate of Food Plantation now focuses to develop Program Pengembangan Kawasan Tanaman Pangan Berbasis Korporasi (Proktani) by developing Komando Strategis Penggilingan (Kostraling) and Sentra Pelayanan Pertanian Padi Terpadu (SP3T).

"In 2020, we did target that the food plantation corporate regions would cover 130 districts to empower the farmers’ institution by the business model in group,” General Director of Food Plantation Ministry of Agriculture, Suwandi told in Jakarta, Tuesday (16/2/21) as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

He also mentioned that the corporate model of food plantation developed should be from the groups and joint groups and they could be making farmers’ enterprises or even companies in the form of PT/CV.

“Corporate concept is done by increasing the business from the upstream to downstream sectors within technology and partnership. It is hoped that the program would increase not only the production and welfare the farmers but could be exported too,” he said.

Suwandi also emphasized that Ministry of Agriculture led by Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL) is implementing the cluster concept in farmers’ corporate in some provinces, such as, Central Kalimantan Province, South Sumatera, and Nusa Tenggara Timur.

"In Nusa Tenggara Timur we are developing the main commodity, paddy, in two districts, such as, District of Belu and District of Sumba Tengah," he said.

He thought that to support food estate development, Ministry of Agriculture  would help by giving production tools, pre and post-harvest tools, and supporting them to get kredit usaha rakyat (KUR) facility.

"Then the grain through Kostraling would be milled to be rice, should be well packaged in high quality and could penetrate the markets in national level and could be exported too,” he said.

For information, food estate in Sumba Tengah is divided in five zones. The first zone is in Village of Umbu Pabal, zone 2 is in Village of Umbu Pabal Selatan, zone 3 is in Village of Elu, zone 4 is in Village of Makatakeri, and zone 5 is in Village of Tanamodu, Sub district of Katikutana Selatan. In 2020, food estate in Sumba Tengah was cultivated covering 5.000 hectares (ha) and did consist of paddy covering 3.000 ha and corn covering 2.000 ha. It is about to cultivate to be 10 thousand hectares in 2021.

In 2021, food estate would also be developed in District of Belu within the potential areas covering 380 ha. The plan is that the commodity to be developed in the first season planting is paddy covering 350 ha and in the second planting it would be intercrops covering 200 ha. (A2)