IFAD Suggests Indonesia to Boost Investment in Rural Areas
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Minggu, 31 Mei 2015 09:16 WIB
Warga mengangkat air dengan ember usai mengambilnya dari sumur buatan di areal persawahan Desa Bontoa, Maros, Sulawesi Selatan, 10 Agustus 2014. Musim kemarau membuat warga kesulitan air bersih dan terpaksa menggunakan air yang tidak layak. TEMPO/Fahmi Ali
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Ronald Hartman, the country program manager at the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), called on Indonesia to immediately improve investments in rural areas. With more than half of the country’s population living in rural areas, investment in rural areas would both reduce starvation risks and boost the economic growth.
IFAD works with the Indonesian government to support men and women in rural areas to improve their productivity and to open new market for small business owners, including farmers and fishermen.
“The recently completed Rural Empowerment and Agricultural Development project showed that this approach is executable,” Mr. Hartman said.
Indonesia has been capable of boosting its economic growth and has issued policies in food and the agriculture sector in a bid achieve MDG-1 target of reducing starvation. The percentage of Indonesian people with malnutrition, particularly toddlers, has been reduced from 19.7 percent in 1990-1992 to 7.6 percent in 2014.
Anthea Webb, a representative of World Food Programme for Indonesia, praised the success as an optimism to realize food resilience in 2030.
