Support from local governments for the advancement of agricultural development programs continues to flow. This time, it comes from the Government of the Regional People's Representative Council (DPRD) of North Kolaka Regency, North Sulawesi Province. The support was expressed by members of the DPRD of North Kolaka during their visit to the Agricultural Training Center (Puslatan), the Agency for Agricultural Extension and Human Resource Development, Ministry of Agriculture, on Wednesday (March 4). The visit was welcomed by the Head of the Agricultural Training Center, Ir. Bustanul Arifin Caya, M.D.M., at the AOR Room of the Agricultural Training Center, BPPSDMP.

During the visit, the Chairman of the DPRD of North Kolaka Regency, Buhari S. Kel, expressed the desire of the Regent of North Kolaka to restore the glory of plantation commodities in the 1990s, such as Cocoa, Clove, Pepper, Coconut, and Food Crops. The DPRD is ready to collaborate and work synergistically with various key programs of the Ministry of Agriculture to bring benefits to the broader community through revitalizing agriculture.

North Kolaka Regency is also ready to support the programs of the Ministry of Agriculture.

In his address, the Head of the Agricultural Training Center, Bustanul Arifin Caya, revealed that the Agricultural Training Center's main task is to support the key programs of the Ministry of Agriculture without exception, which currently focuses on Kostratani. The support from the Agricultural Training Center includes vocational training for preparing the agricultural workforce, certification, and professional standardization in agriculture, as well as the development of the Self-Help Rural Agricultural Training Centers (P4S).

In addition to these main programs, there is the READSI Program, which focuses on empowering smallholder farmers with soft loan funding from IFAD. In 2020, the main priority of READSI, in addition to providing agricultural input assistance for farmers, also supported the optimization of Agricultural Extension Centers (BPP) at program locations through IT equipment assistance that aligns with and supports the Ministry of Agriculture’s main program, Kostratani.

North Kolaka Regency is one of the locations for READSI and must also support Kostratani. For the implementation of the READSI activities in 2020, the region will begin distributing agricultural inputs to farmer groups receiving the program. “The implementation of READSI activities should not differ from or have the same impact as other activities; whether done or not, it should not be the same,” emphasized Bustanul.

Meanwhile, the main executor of the READSI activities at the local level is the Agricultural Service, and the Center will provide support and facilitate regulatory frameworks (NSPK). The distribution of agricultural input assistance should not overlap with other APBN-funded assistance programs to avoid issues. Therefore, the READSI activities must be able to synergize and collaborate with other agricultural development programs in the region to bring benefits to the community and ensure the program is inclusive, not exclusive.