The Reconstruction of Agro-industry Development Model
The farmers welfare will increase if the reconstruction efforts for agro-industry development models will be planned. This statement was presented by one of the Faculty members of the Department of Agricultural Industry Technology – Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Bogor Agricultural University, Prof. E. Gumbira Said in the National Seminar on Agriculture and Congress of Students of the Graduate Study on “Model of Agricultural Development Towards Global Competitiveness and Farmers’ Prosperity”. The event was organized by the Graduate Student Council of Bogor Agricultural University, on Saturday, 26 March 2011, at the Darmaga Campus, Bogor. "Some of the proposed reconstructions are, as follows: (1). Design agro-industry factory that close to the location of raw materials sources; (2). Encourage the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of the agro-industry to achieve its total number to be around 90 percent; (3). Agriculture as an absorber of the national professionals workforce; and (4). Increase the involvement of multi-national corporate (MNC) in agricultural economic development, "explained Prof. Gumbira Said.
Further, he stated that to be more competitive farmers should: (1). Utilize their byproducts optimally; (2). Develop new products from local raw materials to improve its added value; (3). Control the raw materials supply for quality control; and (4). Develop a partnerships system. He took an example of Thai agro-industries that successfully achieved its superiority because they have maintained their key characteristics of the agro-industries competitiveness such as low import content, or only 9.3 percent, higher value added products by 22 percent, raw material incentives by 70 percent, labor costs by 15 percent, and maximum costs for packaging up to 20 percent only.
Chairman of the Board of Experts for Indonesian Traditional Fishermen’s Association, Prof. Rokhmin Dahuri expressed that in the reconstruction of fisheries development model a conducive macro policies are required. "Macro policies that include the provision of loans with low interest rates and terms of soft loans, infrastructure improvements, provision of electricity and gas, creating an attractive business climate, and design the economic development vision based on the resource industry," explained Prof. Rokhmin. The event was also attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture of Indonesia. (Wied)
