Tuesday, 25 November, 2008 | 18:30 WIB
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Around 64 percent of tobacco farmers want to change their livelihood after their crops were devastated by insects due to the lack of costly intensive treatment. "Farmers are often the reason to reject tobacco legalization, when in fact the environment itself is not encouraging," said an analyst from University of Indonesia's Demographic Institution, Abdillah Ahsan, at a Tobacco Farmers Panel Discussion in Jakarta yesterday.
The conclusion was a result of a field study conducted in three provinces this year, namely Kendal in Central Java; Bojonegoro in East Java; and East Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara.
Working seven hours for 16.8 years, farmers only get 47 percent (Rp 413.374) from the average national monthly income. Despite the tobacco price increase for the last three years, farmers still receive no benefit, given rising costs of production.
Iskak, 65, a former tobacco farmer who turned to rice farming, said the profit in planting tobacco is only Rp 2,5 million a year per one plantation, which lasts only five months in a year. "By planting rice, we can get Rp 9.5 million per hectare, and we can harvest twice a year, on average," he said. Since 1997, Iskak and a few other farmers have turned to rice farming.
DIANING SARI
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