He added the ministry is currently collecting data and information on which areas the program will use for the projects. For this year replanting program, Amran continued, three state banks PT Bank Mandiri Tbk, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk and PT Bank Negara Indonesia Tbk prepared up to Rp41 trillion to be disbursed directly to farmers through KUR.
“For replanting we will use KUR. The total funding to be provided for this program to reach Rp30 trillion,” said Amran after a coordination meeting at the office of Economic Affairs on Tuesday.
The minister explained most of the commodities has an old age, As an example, rubber trees that were in Palembang, South Sumatra, with an area of 750 hectares have been 25 years old. He added, the replanting program will be made at least seven years.
Assuming that Indonesian rubber farmers on average have 2 hectares of land, some 500,000 farmers are expected to be able to obtain the loan. To prevent losses of income, the Agriculture Ministry will free corn seeds for the farmers to plant.
The collapse of rubber prices in global markets has greatly affected the life of rubber farmers in Indonesia. In farmers’ markets, rubber price was Rp25,000 per kilogram in 2012. Today, it has dropped to just Rp5,000 a kilogram.