Opening Rice Fields to Grow Oil Palm
The food estate program, or rice field creation initiative in Central Kalimantan, was neglected and instead converted into oil palm plantations owned by private companies.
Avit Hidayat
November 4, 2024
FOUR years ago, Arman, 37, participated in planting rice on his village land in Tajepan, Kapuas Regency, Central Kalimantan. There are 283.6 hectares of land in Arman’s village included in the food estate program or food barn initiated by the seventh president, Joko Widodo. “We managed to plant rice two or three times, but then we stopped because there were no results,” said Arman, the Chairperson of the Aneka Tarea Farmers
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