Jakarta, March 10 (Antara) - The government claimed its Fishermen
Welfare Improvement Program (PKN) launched in 2011 had succeeded in
improving the welfare of Indonesia's fishermen.
"In the past
when they went fishing for one week, they would earn an income of less
than Rp10 million, but now they can earn Rp37 million for a week's
fishing," Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sharif Cicip Sutarjdo
said, when delivering fishing boats to fishermen as assistance, in Aceh
Province on Saturday.
The minister did not elaborate whether the income of Rp37 million per
week is earned by an individual fisherman or groups of fishermen. If the
Rp37 million is earned by a group of ten fishermen, it means that each
fisherman can now earn more than Rp500 thousand per day.
This can be compared to fishermen's incomes in 2012, when each could only earn Rp30 to Rp50 thousand per day.
At a coordination meeting at the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry
in February 2012, Vice President Boediono asked the ministry to give
priority to improving fishermen's standards of living.
He told the meeting about his surprise when he learned during a dialog
with fishermen that there was a fisherman with six children who only
earned Rp30 thousand per day.
"I was surprised to learn that a family with six children lived on an
income of only Rp30,000 per day," Boediono said. The vice president
noted at the time that of the 70,000 disadvantaged villages in
Indonesia, about 10,000 are fishermen's villages.
The vice president during his visit to several fishermen's villages
learned that the standards of living of fishermen remained low.
In March 2013, it was reported that more than seven million traditional
fishermen living in the country's coastal areas remained poor, even
though the government had launched a fishermen improvement program.
It
had also launched a fishery industrial development program aimed at
making the development of the fishery sector a success.
"Traditional fishermen have lived in poor conditions since Indonesia
gained its independence and since the declaration of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG)," Abdul Halim, secretary general of the People's
Coalition for Fishery Justice (Kiara), said in March 2013.
Now, the government claims that the fortunes of fishermen have
improved. "With government assistance, the incomes of fishermen have
multiplied. Now, they are able to go for a minor hajj pilgrimage to the
Holy Land (Mecca), because they earn good incomes," Minister Sharif
Cicip Sutardjo claimed.
He said the standards of living of fishermen have improved since the
launch of the PKN in 2011. The PKN program is supported by 12-related
ministries and government institutions. Through the program, the
government has provided fishing boats to fishermen.
"The government provides fishing ships with a tonnage of more than 30
GT. With these relatively larger boats, they can fish in 100 miles into
the sea. Previously, they could only sail as far as 5 to 20 miles. In
the past, they could only fish for about one to three days because their
ships were small. That is why their incomes have multiplied by four to
five times," the minister said.
The minister stated that the PKN program also aimed to increase the
entrepreneurial spirit among fishermen, so that they could also have
additional sources of income.
Through the program, the Ministry of Marines and Fisheries aims to
develop targeted groups of poor fishermen's families (RTS), based near
the fishery ports (PP).
According to the ministry's data, it will develop 816 fishery ports
under the program, from 2011 until the end of this year. These PP ports
consist of six ocean-going fishery ports, 14 national fishery ports, 45
coastal fishery ports, 749 ports which serve to land fish catches (PPI)
and two privately-run ports.
In 2011, a total of 100 PP/PPI were developed, while in 2012 a total of
400 others were finished. In 2013, 200 PP/PPI were developed under the
PKN program and in 2014 the government will develop 116 PP/PPIs.
In total, the PKN program covers 1,426 villages, with 112,037 targeted poor families.
In the meantime, Head of the Indonesian Marine Council Secretariat Dedy
Sutisna, who is also a former director general for catch fish affairs,
said the PKN program did not only include assistance of fishing boats,
but also assistance in the form of funds and other facilities.
The government provided other facilities so that if a fisherman cannot go fishing he can still earn an income.
"We hope fishermen will always earn incomes. There should not be a time
when they cannot earn any income," noted Dedy Sutisna.
He said poverty in the coastal areas affected 7.87 million fishermen,
or about 25.14 percent of the nation's poor living under the poverty
line.
That is why the national welfare improvement program is important for fishermen.
Under this program, Minister Sharif Cicip Sutardjo handed over 35
fishing vessels worth Rp45 billion to fishermen groups in the Southeast
Sulawesi province last month.
The fishing ships consisted of 25 units, with a gross tonnage of 30
tons, worth Rp37.5 billion and of 10 units, with a gross tonnage that
range between 10 and 30 tons, valued at Rp7.5 billion.
The funds for the procurement of the fishing vessels were taken from
the 2013 and the 2014 state budgets. The Southeast Sulawesi province is
one of the country's biggest catch fish producers, therefore it needed
the catching facility support.
"The central government through the Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP)
set aside funds from two consecutive year budgets for this province.
This is an indication that the central government is convinced this
province is a big fish producer," Minister Sharif said.
On Saturday, March 8, the minister also delivered 27 'Inka Minka'
fishing boats worth Rp36 billion to fishermen in Aceh Province.
The fishing ships consisted of 12 units with more than 30 gross tonnage
(GT) worth Rp18 billion and nine others of the same tonnage worth
Rp13.5 billion. The other six ships have varying tonnage ranging between
10 and 30 GT.
"The ship assistance is provided to reinforce fishermen's catch fishing
fleet through eco-friendly fish-catching technology," Minister Cicip
Sutardjo said.***3***
(T.A014/INE/B003)
EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 10-03-2014 22:10 |
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