Tourism sector gives local farmers a helping hand
New agriculture industry centers set up across Bali are being hailed as the ideal way to support local famers while building up the island’s tourism sector.
The 126 new centers are designed as community-based enterprises for farmers, said Gede Ardhana, the head of Bali Plantation Agency, which initiated their development.
“It is part of a program to improve farmers’ income and welfare,” he said as quoted by Antara Tuesday.
“The primary engine of the center will be the local Subak Abian,” he said, referring to the traditional institution that draws its membership from farmers cultivating plants other than rice. There are currently around 786 Subak Abian in Bali.
“The particular needs of the local Subak Abian and the specific potential of each area will be taken into consideration in determining the appropriate program, including the most suitable plants to be cultivated,” Gede said.
Farmers will be trained in processing and marketing the products from four plants, including arabica coffee, robusta coffee, jambu mete (Anacardium occidentale) and cocoa.
“Hopefully, after several years the Subak Abian will able to manage and run their own agro industry,” he said.
Following the deadly terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2005, which crippled the island’s lucrative tourism industry, several Balinese intellectuals asked the local administration to pay more attention to the agriculture sector.
The attacks had shown tourism was a fragile industry too vulnerable to be trusted as the island’s sole source of income, they said, while the agro industry was a perfect way to reinforce the island’s economic foundations.
“Agro industry will also play an important role in assisting scores of Balinese farmers, who continue to live in poverty due to the low price of agriculture products,” Dewa Suprapta, an agricultural expert at Udayana State University, said recently.
Suprapta has pioneered several agro industry initiatives combining farming methods with modern marketing.
The tourism industry has also begun developing agro-tourism, combining agricultural development with the industry.
“I think this (agro-tourism) will be the perfect tourism model for Bali, because it gives the island a possibility to improve its tourism industry and sustain its agriculture sector at the same time,” one of the most passionate proponents of agro-tourism, Bagus Sudibya, said.
Source: The Jakarta Post
Add comment July 3rd, 2008