President Joko Widodo Appeal to State and other enterprises to Support support farmers, fishermen corporations
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has appealed to state and regional enterprises as well as private companies to stand by farmers and fishermen corporations to assist them in establishing a healthy business model.
“State-run and private companies as well as regional-owned enterprises not only played their role as offtakers but also stood by them — farmers and fishermen’s corporations — until a business model can be established and run well. We do not have this yet,” Jokowi remarked at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java, at a virtual limited meeting on farmers and fishermen corporation during the economic transformation on Tuesday.
The president spoke of having ordered his aides few years ago to take a cue from Malaysia’s Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) and Spain’s cattle cooperative.
FELDA is a Malaysian government agency founded to handle the resettlement of rural poor to newly developed areas and to organize smallholder farms growing cash crops.
Jokowi believes it would not be difficult to emulate such a good model of agencies.
“We can easily emulate that good model. However, I do not know, until now, we cannot establish one or two models,” he remarked.
The head of state appealed to his aides to establish an ecosystem of farmers’ businesses that are connected to the banking system, utilize technology innovation, and streamline its management.
“I think if we can do it, intervention can be made in the post-harvest processing, right from packaging to branding and to its marketing,” he added.
