IPB Expert’s Strategy Towards Sugar Security
From year to year, sugar imports have increased, would it be possible for this country to achieve sugar security? This was answered clearly by the sugar experts from the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, IPB University, Dr. Purwono who explained that sugar security will not be achieved unless the farmers have reached a state of welfare first.
Dr. Purwono explained various problems that are currently being faced by sugar cane farmers. The complex problems were the cause of the emergence of the import regulation which slowly made the sugar cane farmers release their professions and shift to other agricultural commodities which were more profitable. Many sugar factories of state-owned enterprises have shut down due to the fact that planting corn is much more profitable than planting sugar cane. This has caused the production of sugar canes to decrease.
“The current condition of the sugar cane farmers is not supporting the increase in production. This is initially from the way sugar is a less profitable commodity than rice and corn. So it is understandable if agricultural lands are decreasing in number since many of the farmers have decided to convert their land,” Dr. Purwono explained as part of the independent team for the sugar cane commodity from a state university under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia.
Not only that, other problems such as the factory conditions which no longer fulfills the standards. This has a significant impact towards the production of sugar which is obtained, meaning that it lowers the quality of the sugar which is no longer in accordance with the National Indonesian Standards (SNI) therefore causing sugar prices to decrease and become a loss for the sugar farmers.
Moreover, there is an abundance of imported sugar stock which causes the local sugar cane farmers to step down and lose due to their incapability to compete. “The problem of our import is that the numbers are not in accordance with our scale of loss which causes an abundance of imported sugar, therefore, the sugar prices of local sugar decrease. This doesn’t mean we should prohibit importing goods, but it must be in accordance with the losses,” he added.
Dr. Purwono explained that the welfare of farmers is a starting foundation towards efforts which could be done in order to achieve sugar food-security. This state of welfare is capable of giving reassurance to the farmers which cause the farmers to no longer worry if there is a possibility of a failed harvest or a down-fall in the price of the commodity. Moreover, an improvement in the performance of the sugar factories through high technology is needed. The role of the government is still very much needed because sugar as a commodity is a commodity of the community which concerns the life of many. (AVR)
