The Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture continues to invite the millennial generation to engage in agriculture through various facilities. The latest program is Millennial Farmers Access to People's Business Credit (Tani AKUR). The Ministry of Agriculture makes people’s business credit (KUR), a source of financing for millennial farmers from KUR channeling banks, to increase national agricultural productivity. "Referring to the absorption of Agricultural KUR in 2021, the track record is quite good," he said. Of the target of IDR 70 trillion, he said, it turned out that the absorbed was IDR 85.6 trillion or 122 percent. KUR is expected to boost agricultural performance, especially in the 2022 fiscal year, in line with efforts to strengthen food production, added value, and competitiveness of agricultural products. "We always have problems with the budget, therefore, it must be accelerated with better productivity through the use of the KUR policy introduced by the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo for the agricultural sector," said Syahrul.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Agricultural Human Resources Extension and Development Agency (BPPSDMP) of the Ministry of Agriculture Dedi Nursyamsi said that to become a young agricultural entrepreneur, smart people needed 'three main weapons' through the use of Smart Farming. "This utilization is through quality seeds so it must become our habit before farming, starting with the use of quality seeds and seedlings," he said when opening the Webinar Millenial Agriculture Forum (MAF) Vol. 3 Edition 41 on Saturday (10/29/2022). He added Smart Farming can be done by using bioscience products such as new high-yielding varieties (VUB), biofertilizers, biological agents, and others to increase productivity. "Including the use of machine tools to increase and accelerate production while reducing the rate of loss of results. (losses) especially if it is integrated with the internet of things (IoT) to penetrate the boundaries of space and time," he said. The third weapon is the need for capital for agricultural facilities and infrastructure (Sarpras) with KUR provided by the state, as an effort to improve the welfare of farmers throughout Indonesia. The head of Sembawa SMKPPN, Yudi Astoni, added that the government has now prepared a KUR budget of around Rp 50 trillion, which can be utilized by farmers and breeders. With an interest rate of only 6 percent per year plus easy access to loans, the KUR scheme is considered friendly for farmers.
The MAF, which was attended by 500 participants, was presented with material from various competent speakers. Irawan Kurniawan as one of the speakers conveyed the main task of the bank, which is to participate in developing the economy and driving regional development and has the function of encouraging economic growth to improve people's living standards, holders of regional treasuries and one source of Regional Original Income (PAD). KUR utilizes MSMEs that have been running for at least six months from all sectors. Siska Antoni reviews the existence of KUR and the need for access to capital can be met. For example, the benefits of KUR for pineapple cultivation can expand pineapple plantations, distribute pineapples more, harvest more, meet the needs of local and provincial pineapples and create jobs for the community. The third speaker, Khoiri Siswanto, explained the use of KUR for millennial farmers, namely that the easy application of KUR funds in about 15 days has been disbursed and has a low-interest rate of 6 percent, and farmers get a profit of around 50 percent. The Head of the Agricultural Education Center (Pusdiktan) Idha Widi Arsanti in a closing statement explained that one of the ways to increase agricultural businesses is by increasing capital through KUR. In the business context, said Kapusdik Idha WA, 10 Technical Implementation Units (UPT) implementing vocational education at the Ministry of Agriculture are supported by a practical vehicle in the form of a Teaching Factory (TeFa) which must be involved as a learning tool. "Also optimize the Young Agricultural Entrepreneur Growth Program (PWMP) as a business incubator," she said. According to her, in business incubation, of course, there are several stages, namely pre-incubation through selection, the incubation stage which includes training and debriefing, and mentoring process to post-incubation, namely PWMP businesses that are independent and competitive with agrisociopreneur characters. "Millennial farmers, of course, have to be close to digitalization, they have to be close to the marketplace," she said.
