YOGYAKARTA-Ministry of Underdeveloped Rural Development cooperates with Faculty of Agriculture UGMÂ in rural development towards independent village program. The cooperation has been implemented through the signing of the agreement by both parties in the Faculty of Agriculture on Monday (28/3).
Attending the ceremony are Minister of State for Underdeveloped Rural Development, Helmy Faishal Zaini, Vice Rector for Alumni Affairs and Business Development, Prof. Ir. Atyanto Dharoko, M. Phil., Ph.D. and Dean of Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. Ir. Triwibowo Yuwono, Ph.D.
Prof. Ir. Triwibowo Yuwono, Ph.D., said the rural development towards independent village program, in principle, aimed to foster independence of underdeveloped villages by involving students and scholars. The development model is the plasma core. "Serving as the core is the village that is developed and the plasma is the villages around it," said Triwibowo.
Triwibowo adds the involvement of students and scholars from Faculty of Agriculture in the program is a follow up of the MoU signed by the Rector and the Minister of State some time ago.
He said the concept of the rural development towards the independently developing village program will go through several stages, such as pre-stage, development, implementation, to monitoring and evaluation, and refining the program. "Essentially, the village can grow independently from underdevelopment. The program is a follow-up of the MoU signed by the Rector and the Minister of State some time ago," he added.
Meanwhile, Prof. Ir. Atyanto Dharoko, M. Phil., said the village development program is in line with the vision and mission of UGM as a community based campus, which aims for the welfare and happiness of society. The program represents a new challenge, especially for the Faculty of Agriculture, to actively promote to develop the underdeveloped villages. Prof. Atyanto in the occasion reminds people of the concept of 'people follow infrastructure'. "The collaboration involving students and scholars is a new challenge for the Faculty of Agriculture to develop the underdeveloped villages, however, the infrastructure should not follow the people because this will only make it similar to what happened with Jakarta," said Atyanto.
In the same place, Minister Helmy Faishal Zaini, said the problem of distance (disparity) between regions and economic society is an issue currently being resolved. If the issue is not addressed soon, it will create disagreements and conflicts between regions. "Some of them are the issues of idle land and community empowerment," said Helmy.
Helmy explains at least there are 183 underdeveloped areas (districts) and 32 thousand underdeveloped villages of Indonesia. Of the 32 thousand underdeveloped villages, 60% of them are located in underdeveloped areas. In addition to infrastructure development, the Ministry also has 1,000 hectares of land utilization programs in underdeveloped areas by encouraging fiscal. "The target is at least 50 underdeveloped regions (district) can be alleviated, subsequently we also support this program and similar programs that have been developed, such as Anies Baswedan’s program, Indonesia Teach in Underdeveloped Areas," said Helmy.