TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman has promised an income of about Rp 10-20 million per month for students who participate in self-sufficiency in food brigade program, or food brigade. He hopes that the students will enjoy this large income.

“Students are comfortable working in the field because they earn more than Rp 10 million,” Amran said at the Food Brigade Assistance Management Workshop at the ministry’s office.

This income, Amran explained, is not a monthly wage or salary. The income comes from profit sharing after the sale of agricultural products. According to the program, students are allowed to work on agricultural land. “The income is at least ten million a month. (But) later, they won’t get this per month, right? Just like entrepreneurs. After the harvest, the income is divided 70-30. Seventy for (the students) who manage (the land), and 30 percent for those who own the land, he said.

Amran explained that in this program the students will be divided into groups of 15. Each brigade will be responsible for managing 200 hectares of agricultural land in a structured and integrated manner. “The system is that each brigade consists of 15 people (students) who manage 200 hectares (of land),” he said.

Idha Widi Arsanti, head of the Agricultural Extension and Human Resource Development Agency (BPPSDMP), said the students must produce at least 3.5 to 5 tons of agricultural produce when managing the farmland. So with a harvest of this size, if it is multiplied by the cost of goods sold (HPP), then subtracted from the profit sharing with the landowner. “We have calculated that each of the 15 people in (each) brigade will later receive at least Rp 10 million,” Idha said at the same time.

For the initial phase, the Ministry of Agriculture is targeting 20,000 students to participate in the program. Currently, Amran said, registration has been completed and 23,000 students have registered for this program.

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