Rubber Farmers Cry for Help

Posted by AsiaViews | Sep 18, 2017 | 0 |

INDONESIA

The Jakarta Post

Sept 13, 2017

The government should look seriously into the grievances of rubber farmers who have been complaining about low prices over the last five years. True, the price of rubber, like most other commodities, such as palm oil, cacao and coal, is mainly influenced by global supply and demand, especially for Indonesia, which, as the world’s second largest producer, exports more than 80 percent of its output.

But the core of the rubber farmers’ grievances, which were raised by the industry and farmer associations at a working session with the agriculture commission of the House of Representatives on Monday, is that the prices in the country are half of what rubber growers in Thailand and Malaysia have enjoyed.

The price of rubber, like most commodities, declined from as high as US$5 per kilogram in 2011 to as low as $1.2 in 2015 due to the global production surplus and declining demand, notably in China. Although the prices rose last year to more than $2 per kg, this is likely unsustainable because the price increase was rather artificial, not generated by real market forces but by a joint move by Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, which together account for 80 percent of the global output to cut supplies to the international market under an agreed export tonnage scheme.

Despite the moderate price rise generated by the cartel-like move, most rubber farmers in Indonesia continue to earn only half of what rubber growers in Thailand, the world’s largest producer, and Malaysia, the third largest producer, enjoy.

The farmers’ grievances deserve the government’s attention because, strikingly different from palm oil, more than 85 percent of the estimated 3.6 million hectares of rubber estates in the country are owned by smallholders. The industry association reported that rubber plantations employed around 2.5 million workers and contributed $3.4 billion to the country’s export earnings last year.

It is most urgent for the agriculture ministry, notably the directorate general of plantations, to act firmly to help the farmers. It should not be done by subsidizing their rubber, as the Thai government did when it spent billions of dollars to support the Thai farmers, because such a policy would only distort the market and is by no means sustainable.

Rather, the government should investigate as to why our farmers have been dealing with such low prices, compared to their counterparts in other major rubber-producing countries. The directorate general of plantations should look into the structure of relations between the smallholders and rubber-processing companies.

The government should also act firmly in regard to the findings of several studies that show the yield of our rubber plantations is only half of that in Thailand and Malaysia due to aging trees. The quality of Indonesia’s latex is very low because of poor tapping practices.

Mutually beneficial collaboration between rubber-processing companies and smallholders under government oversight, as widely implemented between big oil palm plantations and smallholders, could be an effective partnership model to solve the problems of low yield and poor quality because they need each other for survival.

(http://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2017/09/13/editorial-rubber-farmers-cry-for-help.html )

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Rubber Farmers Cry for Help