Long before governing Bantaeng regency, Nurdin Abdullah observed that almost 75 percent of Bantaeng's population worked as farmers. Yet the people had difficulty buying rice. Nurdin Abdullah, who graduated with a Ph.D in agriculture from Kyushu University in Japan, concluded something was really wrong.

In 2008, when he was elected regent, Nurdin focused on improving the farmers standard of living, instead of the business sector, which represented