UNDP will Help 100 Cooperative Units in East Nusa Tenggara

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-The Production and Marketing Deputy of Cooperative Ministry and SME I Wayan Dipta stated that the UN Development program (UNDP) would help the local government to empower farmer communities through the cooperative unit approach. The move is taken to reduce the income gap. “Starting from this year,” he said in the written statement, Monday, 29th of August 2016.

According to Wayan, the UNDP assistance program for farming communities has developed in some other countries, for example in America, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. He viewed that the UNDP had chosen cooperative as a tool due to its success to help farmers develop their business.

One of the areas that will be developed is East Nusa Tenggara province. Wayan said that through UNDP assistance it will create 100 cooperative units. The financing is sourced from funding projects in environmental financing facility program.

The program will be focusing on farming community empowerment. The goal is to increase productivity, quality, and competitiveness of the top agriculture. Not only East Nusa Tenggara, the program is also planned to be developed in other lagging areas.

Wayan has stated that they will help the farmers to develop environmentally friendly agriculture. The products that will be produced are commodities like rice, corn, soy, cassava, coffee, cacao, and spices.

According to Wayan, the program will be starting this year in East Nusa Tenggara. He hopes that other areas will also enter the UNDP program. The first step is to identify other potential areas, so the problems existing in other regions can be mapped.

DANANG FIRMANTO