Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono explained the fishing village program consisting of Advanced Fishermen Village and Aquaculture Village to Committee II of the Regional Representatives Council of the Republic of Indonesia (DPD RI) in Jakarta. "The construction of fishing villages will be carried out in 120 locations and the construction of cultivation villages will be carried out in 130 locations," said Trenggono, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, January 18, 2022. According to him, the development aims to strengthen the economic resilience of the community and encourage development in various regions. KKP will synergize with other government ministries/agencies.
In the Advanced Fishermen's Village program, he said, KKP will provide facilities and infrastructure assistance, such as ship assistance, fishing gear, and boat engines. The collaboration will be carried out in the provision of fuel and energy, health and employment insurance, education, strengthening business institutions through fishermen's cooperatives, to health facilities. Meanwhile, for the development of Aquaculture Villages, he continued, there are three categories, namely inland aquaculture villages for freshwater commodities, such as carp, catfish (lele), and catfish (patin); coastal aquaculture village for brackish commodities such as milkfish and saline tilapia; and a marine aquaculture village for marine fish commodities, such as grouper, snapper, and star pomfret. Trenggono said that with these programs, KKP targets to increase the exchange rate for fishermen and fish cultivators, then create social protection to increase human resource capacity and community business scale. In addition, he said, this program aims for ecological resilience, namely to improve environmental quality and protect commodities of economic value from extinction. Furthermore, Trenggono hopes that with the acceleration of the implementation of the breakthrough program, the marine and fisheries sector in the future will be able to become the backbone of the national economy. "We hope that the implementation of several priority KKP activities in 2022 in the regions can have an impact on improving welfare and the national economy, while still paying attention to ecological sustainability," he said.
Previously, the Daily Chair of the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen Association (KNTI) Dani Setiawan wanted the central government, regional governments, BPH Migas, and Pertamina, to immediately accelerate the process of facilitating access, providing SPBUN infrastructure, and ensuring the allocation of subsidized fuel that meets the needs of small and traditional fishermen. In addition, he said, it is necessary to strengthen the protection and safety schemes for fishermen due to the impact of climate change and accidents at sea, especially extreme weather and big waves causing small fishing boats that lean often to suffer damage. Likewise, fishermen's houses on the coast which are subscribed to are submerged by tidal waves and blows by waves and wind. He also reminded that there are still overlapping areas or fishing zoning for small fishermen and big fishermen, and even the widespread operation of fishing gear that is not environmentally friendly such as trawling, including the impact of non-fishing activities such as mining and infrastructure development that disrupt the fishing areas of small fishermen.
