Agricom.id, JAKARTA – Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo asked for the students of Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) to multiply the field works to understand more the issues of agriculture. He thought that the students as the agents of change should contribute, namely to increase the production.
“I hope that the students nowadays should not graduate if after eating mango, the seed is thrown away only. I do hope that after eating mango, they have initiative to plant, water and fertilize the mango. That is the agent of change,” he said when attending Focus Group Discussion in IPB Dramaga, Bogor some time ago.
He told that ministry of agriculture has targeted the production up to 7 percent for every commodity. Besides, ministry of agriculture would reduce the losses up to five percent.
“In my future concept, the productivity should increase within intellectual. Reduce the losses to increase the production. That is why I hope, we should go to the field than listening to or hearing the theory,” Syahrul said, as in the official statement to Agricom.id.
Besides, the increasing production is done by encouraging the young entrepreneurs and the other stakeholders in agriculture to be together involve in the food sovereignty and gerakan tiga kali ekspor (Gratieks).
"We keep making coordination with the exporters to advantage the alternative export markets to increase the food production nationally. On the other hand they could propose to get KUR (kredit usaha rakyat) for the interest rate is only six percent,” he said.
For information, Gratieks is the same movement to increase the export within unusual ways. It was proposed by Minister Syahrul and it is hoped to unite every stakeholder, from the upstream to downstream sectors.
“By Gratieks we hope to accelerate the export of agriculture to be the modern agricultural ecosystem and support the economy nationally. Alhamdulillah, in my 100 day – work, I could export more than 100 billion rupiah. That is why we need to be serious to manage this country,” he emphasized. (A2)