The number of high school graduates entering Indonesia's agriculture faculties has been declining for several years. While tens of thousands of high school students failed to enter state universities in 2008, 2,894 seats in the agriculture faculty were not taken.
On the average, the number of incoming agriculture students was only 50 percent of its capacity. Obviously this is not an interesting field of study for the younger generation. In 2005 to 2006, as many as 40 of Indonesia's agriculture faculties were closed due to lack of students.
To attract more students, the Directorate General of Higher Education recommends that agriculture merge some traditional study programs. For example, soil science, agronomy, horticulture, landscape architecture, plant diseases and pest science study programs could be merged into an agro-eco-technology study program, which sounds "more modern" because it contains the words "eco" and "technology".
Whether this "cosmetic" approach is effective in attracting high school graduates remains to be seen. But certainly the decline of interest in agriculture among the younger generation is caused by more substantial matters and not just by an uninteresting name.
People are affected by what they see and experience in daily lives. For many city teenagers, farming is an alien profession.
Teenagers living in the villages are not interested in farming because they have experienced difficult lives as farmer families. Many of our farmers have little land or even no land and cannot easily obtain financial assistance from banks. It is not surprising that many young villagers leave the villages and work in the city. Rural studies reveal an alarming statistic that most village agricultural workers are elderly people who are less adaptive to technological innovation.
The miserable condition of our farmers is the result of the government's negligence to develop a strong agricultural sector. Prof. Sediono Tjondronegoro said we are an agricultural nation that denies agriculture. And if we continue neglecting it, we jeopardize our survival, since agriculture is the foundation of human civilization, even human life.
Currently seven main food commodities other than rice that we consume are dependent on imported food, and four of them are now in critical condition. (Kompas, Sept.1, 2008). Our country has been snared in a global food trap.
Having little land, low technology and limited funds, our farmers will become victims of globalization, whereas in developed countries, farmers enjoy government subsidies.
The challenge to be independent in food supply will be even harder in the future because our population is steadily increasing.
Meanwhile, our fertile agricultural land -- especially in Java and Bali -- is quickly vanishing because it has been converted into other land use types which are more profitable. So, in the future we must produce more food from a decreasing quantity of land. How can we do that?
We need the brightest minds to work in agricultural research. Agriculture students of low quality will not be able to meet the challenge. We must attract the best high school students. Scholarships must be offered. But this is not sufficient. Agricultural research centers must be adequately equipped with the latest technology and ample grants must be provided for research activities.
High quality research, however, will not contribute significantly to our food independence unless we can implement the results. The government must provide subsidies and protection to our agricultural sector in order to minimize the domination of multinational corporations.
We need to learn from Thailand, which concentrates on agriculture. Young people will have incentives and will be proud to work in the agricultural sector either as employees or entrepreneurs when they see strong evidence that this discipline has promising financial advantages.
The writer holds a PhD in ecology from The Ohio State University and is currently serving as head of the Department of Forestry, University of Bengkulu. He can be reached at wiryonogood@yahoo.com.
Source: The Jakarta Post
On the average, the number of incoming agriculture students was only 50 percent of its capacity. Obviously this is not an interesting field of study for the younger generation. In 2005 to 2006, as many as 40 of Indonesia's agriculture faculties were closed due to lack of students.
To attract more students, the Directorate General of Higher Education recommends that agriculture merge some traditional study programs. For example, soil science, agronomy, horticulture, landscape architecture, plant diseases and pest science study programs could be merged into an agro-eco-technology study program, which sounds "more modern" because it contains the words "eco" and "technology".
Whether this "cosmetic" approach is effective in attracting high school graduates remains to be seen. But certainly the decline of interest in agriculture among the younger generation is caused by more substantial matters and not just by an uninteresting name.
People are affected by what they see and experience in daily lives. For many city teenagers, farming is an alien profession.
Teenagers living in the villages are not interested in farming because they have experienced difficult lives as farmer families. Many of our farmers have little land or even no land and cannot easily obtain financial assistance from banks. It is not surprising that many young villagers leave the villages and work in the city. Rural studies reveal an alarming statistic that most village agricultural workers are elderly people who are less adaptive to technological innovation.
The miserable condition of our farmers is the result of the government's negligence to develop a strong agricultural sector. Prof. Sediono Tjondronegoro said we are an agricultural nation that denies agriculture. And if we continue neglecting it, we jeopardize our survival, since agriculture is the foundation of human civilization, even human life.
Currently seven main food commodities other than rice that we consume are dependent on imported food, and four of them are now in critical condition. (Kompas, Sept.1, 2008). Our country has been snared in a global food trap.
Having little land, low technology and limited funds, our farmers will become victims of globalization, whereas in developed countries, farmers enjoy government subsidies.
The challenge to be independent in food supply will be even harder in the future because our population is steadily increasing.
Meanwhile, our fertile agricultural land -- especially in Java and Bali -- is quickly vanishing because it has been converted into other land use types which are more profitable. So, in the future we must produce more food from a decreasing quantity of land. How can we do that?
We need the brightest minds to work in agricultural research. Agriculture students of low quality will not be able to meet the challenge. We must attract the best high school students. Scholarships must be offered. But this is not sufficient. Agricultural research centers must be adequately equipped with the latest technology and ample grants must be provided for research activities.
High quality research, however, will not contribute significantly to our food independence unless we can implement the results. The government must provide subsidies and protection to our agricultural sector in order to minimize the domination of multinational corporations.
We need to learn from Thailand, which concentrates on agriculture. Young people will have incentives and will be proud to work in the agricultural sector either as employees or entrepreneurs when they see strong evidence that this discipline has promising financial advantages.
The writer holds a PhD in ecology from The Ohio State University and is currently serving as head of the Department of Forestry, University of Bengkulu. He can be reached at wiryonogood@yahoo.com.
Source: The Jakarta Post
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