Poverty Rate to Increase if Rice Price Hike Continues: Economist
3 October 2015 10:36 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Economist Setyo Purwadi said that the high price of rice and food commodities would affect poverty rate in Indonesia because food is the main commodity of the people.
According to Setyo, rice is the staple food of Indonesian people since the past and when there is food crisis (such as the rising rice price), it will directly impact poverty rate.
Sharing the same sentiment, Dwi Andreas Santosa, professor at Agriculture Faculty of the Bogor Agricultural Institution (IPB) said that since September 2014 – March 2015, the number of poor people in Indonesia rose from 27.73 million people into 28,59 million people.
Andreas also said that in the period of6 months, at least 570,000 farmers became poor and it is even estimated that the number of farmers who become poor would increase in the period of April 2015 - March 2016, reaching more than 1 million farmers.
INGE KLARA SAFITRI
