
ACTNews, BLORA – Aksi Cepat Tanggap uses its humanitarian vehicles to
deliver staple food to support fellow Indonesians who are in dire need. The
food aid is often supplied from the Waqf-Based Food Barn (LPW) under the auspices
of Global Wakaf-ACT. As an endeavor to strengthen food security in Indonesia,
Global Wakaf is now launching the Waqf-Based Rice Barn (LBW) on Wednesday (12/4).
Ahyudin, the
Chairperson of the ACT Board of Trustees revealed that the Waqf-Based Rice
Barns aims to solve the problems of the community, including poverty and food insecurity.
Poverty is a major problem in this country, coupled with the country's economic
conditions that have not improved, making it difficult for some people to fulfill
their daily needs, especially food.
"Waqf-Based
Rice Barn is one of our masterpiece programs to mobilize the sympathy of the community
to overcome food insecurity on one side, supported by the Humanity Rice Truck
and Humanity Food Truck on the other side. We want to continue to educate the
public about productive waqf management systems for farmers to improve the
economy," said Ahyudin. LBW functions as a rice provider for humanitarian programs,
such as post-disaster emergency needs or to be distributed to the poor.
LBW has a warehouse and rice production equipment to process quality rice from farmers in Blora. LBW' also aims to empower local farmers. The presence of LBW itself is the result of the productive management of the waqf assets that are endowed to Global Wakaf as an administrator.
Global Wakaf-ACT launched Wakaf-Based Rice Barn in Blora on Wednesday
(12/4). (ACTNews / Reza Mardhani)
Until now, the
program has been managed by the majority of small farmers in Jipang Village. The
majority of the 2,200 population of the village are farm laborers with the
condition that are mostly unemployed after harvest season. Through this
program, farmers in Jipang Village no longer need to sell their rice to middlemen.
The price of the rice is set according to the agreement between the LPW
management and the farmers.
ACT Program
Director Wahyu Novyan added, the existence of LPW as the parent program of the LBW
seeks to improve the welfare of the farmers through several stages. "There
are several steps that we undertake. First, the provision of agricultural land.
The food waqf tries to keep the land from being converted to anything other
than agricultural lands with the guarantee of the waqf. Second, we buy crops
above the market price so to give more profits to the farmers. Third, we
provide assistance to farmers, such as a seed standardization, land management,
crop planting and maintenance, and postharvest processing. Fourth, the
establishment of the Village Waqf Self-Sustenance Board (LKWD). In addition, we
also provide a rice processing plants in the form of rice hullers & driers,"
he concluded.
According to
data from the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning, in the last
six years (2013-2018) total amount of rice fields in Indonesia has declined
significantly for 8.32% or around 645 thousand hectares. Additionally, the amount
of new rice fields in 2014-2018 is only around 215 thousand hectares. According
to the data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the total amount of
agricultural lands in 2018 was only 7.1 million hectares compared to the amount
of agricultural lands in 2017 that was 7.75 million hectares. Meanwhile,
Indonesia ranked 73 in the world with a serious hunger problem with 10.8
million people living in extreme poverty. Additionally, 2019 sees the increase
of food prices for 2.02%.
The above conditions can threaten national food security. For this reason, in order to maintain food availability and prevent land use change, Global Wakaf - ACT has pioneered the establishment of the Waqf-Based Food Barn (LPW) as the parent program of the Waqf-Based Rice Barn (LBW). LPW uses waqf to empower by maintaining the yields and the sustainability of the lands so that it cannot be converted for other functions.
Residents of Blora obtained rice donation from the Waqf-Based Rice Barn
through the Humanity Rice Truck. (ACTNews / Muhajir Arif Rahmani)
With 98 hectares
of land in Blora, the Waqf-Based Rice Barn will support several food
distribution programs such as Rice for Indonesian Santri (BERISI) program to
meet the needs of Islamic boarding schools, Humanity Rice Truck that will distribute
rice to poor families, Humanity Food Truck that is ready to provide meal
packages to poor communities, as well as to be sold in the Waqf Retail Shops.
During the launching,
LBW distributed 5 tons of rice to 1,000 underprivileged residents in Jipang
Village, Cepu Subdistrict, Blora Regency. This rice aid was welcomed positively
by Jipang Villagers. []