Indonesia Desperately Needs Young Farmers

Oxfam Indonesia’s economic justice program director Dini Widiastuti said that the number of households working in the agriculture sector decreased by 5 million in the period of 2003-2013.

“The decreasing number of farmers will have impacts on the domestic food availability,” Dini said in Jakarta on Thursday, August 11, 2016.

Dini added that another issue faced by the country was related to farmers’ age and productivity. Data collected during the 2013 agriculture census revealed that the farmers’ age structure was dominated by elderly with low education levels. The data showed that 60.8 percent of farmers were above 45 years old, and 73.97 percent of them were elementary school graduates with poor access to technology.

The data was in line with the Agribusiness Cost Structure Survey (SOUT) results for food crops in 2016. The survey revealed that the majority of food crops farmers (96.45 percent) were above 30 years.

The People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty (KRKP) released a report in 2016 that showed an alarming finding that 50 percent of rice farmers and 73 percent of horticulture farmers would not want their children to follow their steps. Children of the farmers also expressed their reluctance to be farmers.

“Young generation’s lack of interest in the agriculture sector was caused by a perception that being farmers is not rewarding,” AgriProFocus Indonesia’s Country Network Coordinator Tina Napitupulu said.

Such a condition had caused a significant drop in the number of workers in the agriculture sector by 3.15 million people in the period of 2010-2014.

KRPK coordinator Said Abdullah revealed that 65 percent of current farmers were above 45 years old. Said admitted that there was insufficient access to agriculture information for young generations.