Agrofarm-Deputy for Food and Agriculture Coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Musdhalifah Machmud said, in order to maintain the sustainability of Indonesian tea plantations, her side is pushing for the acceleration of new plantings on land owned by smallholder tea farmers in PHBM (Joint Community Forest Management) lands. The area of Indonesian tea plantations has continuously decreased since 1998, from 157,039 hectares to only 118,252 hectares in 2017.
This means that in a period of 19 years, the area of tea in Indonesia has decreased by 38,787 hectares or an average decrease of more than 2,000 hectares per year.
Musdhalifah Machmud said, one of the efforts to prevent a decrease in the area of tea is to increase the area of tea nationally. “One way to maintain such a large area is to accelerate new plantings on land belonging to the smallholder tea farmers themselves and on PHBM (Joint Community Forest Management) land,” said Musdhalifah in her official statement, Monday (16/4/2018).
Furthermore, Musdhalifah explained, tea also has economic value as well as other commodities. “Indonesian tea is also open for the market, all that remains is to prepare new tea plantations. The quality of the tea already exists, the productivity of the tea already exists, all that remains is to maximize it,” she explained. Then, access to personal business loan (KUR) for tea farmers is also a concern. This is because the existing KUR is an annual KUR. He hopes that there will be a KUR scheme that adjusts the harvest cycle and business of tea farmers. “The annual one is considered difficult, so maybe there is a (alternative) scheme for every few months. So that friends who are engaged in the business sector can access KUR more easily,” she said.
Within five years, the government has carried out an intensification and rehabilitation program to assist farmers in increasing tea productivity. One area that has successfully implemented the program is the smallholder tea plantation belonging to the Neglasari Farmer Group in Pengalengan District, Bandung Regency, West Java Province. At this time, the productivity of these smallholders tea gardens can produce 4 tons per hectare per year. With an average productivity of farmer groups of 3,000 kg per hectare per year.
Thanks to the intensification and rehabilitation program, the average national productivity of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) for tea is 1,983 kg per hectare per year, followed by Private-owned Plantations (PBS) for tea at 1,552 kg per hectare per year, and smallholders tea at 1,412 kg per year. hectares per year.
In this workshop, the restoration of the Citarum River ecosystem was also highlighted. Considering, according to the World Bank, the Citarum is the dirtiest river in the world. “We want to produce a pilot development of 1,000 hectares of community tea in the Upper Citarum River. Therefore, it is very important to restore the Citarum River basin ecosystem to create a clean, healthy and sustainable Citarum River,” concluded Musdhalifah.
Source: https://www.agrofarm.co.id/2018/04/6378-2/
