Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar to Implement Contract Farming if Elected

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Running presidential pair Anies Baswedan-Muhaimain Iskandar promised to implement contract farming to control food prices from upstream to downstream if elected in the upcoming general elections.

"With [contract farming], prices would be appropriate, farmers would be profitable while sellers and citizens would acquire affordable prices," said the pair's campaigning team AMIN's spokesperson, Reynaldi Sarijowan when called on Monday.

Reynaldi said contract farming has been implemented by Anies during his time as Jakarta's governor. According to him, current programs seeking to control food prices have not been beneficial for the general public, sellers, farmers, fishermen, and other elements of Indonesian society. So far, he went on, prices always went down during a fruitful harvest.

"Food prices have always been a plight for farmers, fishermen, or stock farmers since fruitful harvest means loss of profit. So, Anies will implement [contract farming]. With this program, farmers are granted certainty to sell their harvest," he explained.

According to Reynaldi, contract farming operates through cooperation between state-owned enterprises or food agencies and farmers, fishermen, or stock farmers to purchase their harvests.

These harvests will then be distributed to sellers to cut off the distribution chain. "Since the main concern was always the middlemen, the cause for price instability," he concluded.

ANTARA

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