Bekasi Regency - Indonesian Army soldiers also supervised the rice harvest activities of farmers in the Kedungwaringin District, Bekasi Regency, West Java, together with representatives of the local Agricultural Extension Agency and the Cibitung Bulog team and partners.
Babinsa member of Koramil 13/Kedung Waringin Sertu Nursalim said that this harvest activity was carried out on 20,000 square meters of rice fields and produced 13 tons of dry harvested grain (GKP).
"The harvest has been successfully completed in Kampung Cebong, RT 03 RW 02, Mekar Jaya Village, Kedung Waringin District, covering an area of 20,000 square meters with a market purchase price of IDR 6,800 per kilogram," he said at the location, Tuesday.
He said, although the harvest was directly monitored by the Bulog Cibitung team, Bekasi Regency, the farmers' grain yields were not absorbed by Bulog due to the high market mechanism.
"Many farmers have taken capital from investors for planting and maintenance costs so they prefer to sell to parties who offer higher prices," he said.
Danramil 13 Kedungwaringin Captain Arh Suharto stated that this activity aims to ensure that farmers' harvests are properly monitored as well as to improve coordination with Bulog regarding the mechanism for absorbing rice in the region.
"Market purchase prices are indeed higher than Bulog's standard prices, so many farmers prefer to sell their crops to the general market. It doesn't matter, as long as farmers can be lifted economically during harvests like now," he said.
Local farmer Sarman (41) hopes that in the future Perum Bulog will be able to accommodate their harvest but at a higher price than the standard market price considering Bulog's capacity as the central operator for distributing agricultural products.