http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/03/05/merauke-estate-not-answer-ri's-food-problem-coalition.html
Merauke estate not the answer to RI's food problem: Coalition
Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 03/05/2010 10:24
AM | National
A coalition of activists called on the government to review a policy on a
large-scale food production systems being built over 1.6 million hectares of
forest areas in Merauke, Papua province.
They said the 2010 government regulation on cultivation would not improve the
country's food sovereignty issue as it only accommodated the interests of the
giant private companies to reap benefits.
The government should assess, among other issues, whether the estate would
benefit local people and whether Merauke's environment could accommodate such a
huge food estate project.
"It is too risky for the country to entrust its food sovereignty to private
businesses," the coordinator of Alliance for Prosperous Villages, Tejo Wahyu
Jatmiko told reporters on Thursday.
Article 2 in the regulations says the cultivation aimed to promote food
sovereignty and security and improve local people's welfare.
The regulation says that in Papua a license holder could manage 20,000
hectares, twice as large allowed in other provinces.
Article 24 says the products from the cultivation should be prioritized to meet
domestic needs in the event a natural disaster or massive crop failure. The
status would be determined by the President.
"This article means products from food estates would mainly go abroad. So how
would it fulfill food security in the country?" Tejo said.
The coalition warned the projects would violate the spatial planning and
environment laws.
The environment law requires the local administration to assess environmental
capacity as the basis to determine types of business activities eligible in the
area.
The Alliance of Prosperous Villages consists of 18 non-governmental
organizations, including Sawit Watch, People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty
and the People's Coalition for Justice in Fisheries (Kiara).
Public campaigner at the Sawit Watch, Edi Sutrisno said oil palm plantations
are a lesson on how people do not benefit without thorough environmental
analyses.
"We are not against food for people program, but the plan of food estate in
Papua does not target Indonesia's needs," he said.
The food estate is one of priority agendas of President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono this year. The first projects will convert an area of 500,000
hectares.
++++
The Straits Times (Singapore)
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Foreign farmers welcome in Papua
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Indonesia Correspondent
Official cites 2.5 million ha of land ideal for cultivation in Merauke
JAKARTA: Indonesia is about to try turning some of its vast tracts of fertile
land into the colour of money.
The Agricultural Ministry is putting the finishing touches on a programme aimed
at getting foreign and local investors to mass-produce crops both for the
Indonesian market and for export.
The programme will allow foreign and local investors to lease and manage food
estates in Merauke, a regency in the eastern-most province
of Papua.
Senior ministry official Hilman Manan was quoted by Agence France-Presse last
week as saying that Merauke had 2.5 million ha of land which was ideal for
cultivation.
'The area is flat and has a good climate. Its soil is appropriate,' he said.
'Sumatra is already congested with other plantations...and Kalimantan is full
of mining areas and many plantations.'
Japan, South Korea and some Middle Eastern countries have expressed interest in
the programme, he said.
Large-scale farming by Indonesian and foreign firms has been going on for
years. But it has mostly been confined to oil palm. Commodities such as corn
and sugar cane are still imported.
In recent years, land-scarce countries have tried to lease Indonesian soil to
grow crops for their own people.
Saudi Arabia's Bin Laden group last year reportedly considered developing up to
two million ha of farmland in Papua to grow basmati rice. The US$4.3 billion
(S$6 billion) plan apparently stalled in October because of land acquisition
problems.
Earlier this month, the partly government-owned Minerals Energy Commodities
Holdings from the United Arab Emirates said it was keen on renting 100,000ha of
land in Kalimantan to produce rice, sugar cane, oil palm and fruit.
On Thursday, a ministry spokesman told The Straits Times that local governments
in Merauke, home to only 175,000 people, were eager for foreign investment and
for the estate scheme to take off.
'We cannot do this mass farming on Java because we need to protect small
farmers,' he added.
He was echoing earlier concerns that the scheme, if launched nationwide, would
crush small-scale farmers in Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara.
There are an estimated 42.6 million small-scale farmers, mostly in heavily
populated Java. About 70 per cent of Indonesia's food supply comes from the
island.
Ministry officials say the Merauke food estate will have a mix of crops - from
rice padi, maize, soya bean and sugar cane to oil palm. Indonesia is now the
world's top producer of palm oil.
To make sure that the estates are not seen by residents of the areas as a form
of 'land grab', investors will be given only up to 100,000ha each to develop,
with a 35-year land-use lease. This can be extended later.
Investment firms will be given tax and custom duty breaks but they have to be
joint ventures, with foreigners holding a 49 per cent stake at most.
'We will also mandate the amount of produce that can be exported and what has
to stay in the domestic market,' said the Agricultural Ministry spokesman.
Businesses such as the PT Bangun Tjipta Saran conglomerate have said that they
are raring to grow corn and sugar cane. But they say they desperately need the
government's help to develop infrastructure such as roads, a port and new
airport runways.
wa...@sph.com.sg
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