Agricom.id, JAKARTA – The agriculture observer and Daily Chairman of Himpunan Kerukunan Tani Indonesia (HKTI) West Java, Entang Sastraatmaja said that it is the mistake if the government does not give serious attention to agriculture sector.

He thought that it is proven after central bureau of statistic (CBS) mentioned that the agriculture got the increasing exports significantly. The various exports in agriculture in 2019-2020 showed the superiority.

“Every side should learn from the past. When multi-dimension crisis took place in 1997/1998, of all sectors, only the agriculture got positive progress, others did decrease and tend to be negative,” he said, as in the official statement to Agricom.id recently.

He also thought that the agriculture exports could significantly increase if they are supported by the available budget (from the Country and Regional Budget). But the facts showed that the budget in agriculture is not more than 5 percent.

So he hoped that ministry of agriculture as the spearhead of the agriculture in Indonesia should convince other ministries, institutions, and Indonesian legislators that the agriculture should have proportional supports.

“If they need evidences, the answers are in the exports which keep positively growing. This is different from others outside of the agriculture,” he said.

In the previous, CBS noted that the agriculture exports increased 9,60 percent. Based on the sector, only the agriculture exports positively and consistently increased but the processing industries, oil and gas, mining and other sectors did tend to decrease and not show the better progress. (A2)