YOGYAKARTA – The structure of land ownership and production asset is a crucial matter for increasing national food supply as more than 50% of farmers only acquire less than 0,5 hectare of land. Therefore, Faculty of Agriculture of UGM has urged the government to increase land ownership for farmers. “This is because the production of rice, corn and bean is always less than 5%,” said Dean of the Faculty, Dr. Jamhari, SP., MP., in the seminar entitled Agricultural Development Policy towards Food Sovereignty and Independence in the Faculty on Friday (5/4).
The small agricultural land, said Jamhari, has caused low efficiency that led to low income of the farmers. The crop land is stagnant despite the new land creation. The rapid agricultural land conversion has made the agricultural land stagnant.
Crop production needs to be encouraged by creating new lands in potential areas as well as irrigation extension and improvement, planting intensification (double or triple cropping), and agroforestry use. Capital support from banks also needs to be encouraged as farmers usually rely on their own.
Director of Logistics Board, Ir. Sutarto Alimoeso, MM., said in a statement read out by expert, Agus Saifullah, that logistics management was facing barriers in terms of infrastructure, particularly roads and ports, not to mention illegal retributions that caused high costs. “This resulted in expensive and slow logistic transaction, stock unavailability and price fluctuations,” he said.