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 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]