Government Asked To Address Problem Faced By Rubber Farmers

Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Dec 24 (Antara) - A law maker from the Commission IV of the House of Representatives Daniel Johan seeks to draw the attention of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to problem faced by rubber farmers with the commodity price fall over the past year. Rubber price fall has resulted in an increase in poverty in West Kalimantan, Daniel said after visiting 21 villages where most people make a living as rubber farmers in the province. "I have heard the same complaint in those villages," he said here on Wednesday. "They expressed hope that President Jokowi, for whom they gave their votes in the July presidential election, to do something to cope with their problem," he added. He said the government could not control the price in international market but the farmers wanted the government to be serious in seeking solution to their problems. Indonesia is the world`s second largest rubber producer after Thailand and small farmers account for 85 percent of the country`s production. "Just imagine all rubber farmers suddenly fell into poverty because of the price fall," the deputy secretary general of the Islam-based Nation Awakening Party (PKB) said. Rubber price has fallen to only Rp5,000 per kilogram from Rp21,000 earlier in that province. The increase in the prices of basic necessities following the recent oil fuel (BBM) subsidy cut made thing worse for the farmers. "Failure to cope with the condition would mean failure in the program of reducing poverty in the country," he said. He said Jokowi could discuss the problem with his counterparts from Thailand and Malaysia , the third largest producer of rubber in the world . The three ASEAN countries together dominate trade of natural rubber in the world and they are grouped in the International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC) that could serve as a cartel ITCR agreed on export retention in January-June 2009 and from Oct. 2011 to March 2012 in a bid to prop up the price of that commodity. ITRC also encouraged development downstream rubber industry to reduce dependence on primary market. As a short term bid to help raise rubber price is by using rubber as layer for road asphalt, Daniel suggested. Meanwhile, rubber farmers are encouraged to develop other business in the farm sector such as animal husbandry and fishery that do not take long time for harvest, he said. He stressed the importance of agricultural extension program, which in the past failed in implementation .