Smallholders Farmers in Nagan Raya Disappointed on FFB Price

A number of smallholder oil palm farmers in Nagan Raya, Aceh were deeply disappointed over the price of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) that keep declining in Nagan Raya. They assumed government and regional parliament representative (DPRK) didn’t respond to their complaint during a hearing with palm oil company on Friday (6/7/2018). “We, on behalf of smallholder farmers, are disappointed about the attitude of local government and Nagan Raya regional representative during the meeting yesterday,” said Barona, a farmers from Blang Baroe Village, Kuala District, Nagan Raya as quoted by Serambinews (7/7/2018). According to him, there are no representatives backed them during the hearing concerning FFB price. “There is no concrete decision and they just formed a special committee, while the price of FFB in Nagan kept going down and the local government and DPRK didn’t take any significant action to pressure palm oil company in Nagan Raya,” he said. Vice Chairman of Nagan Raya DPRK Samsuardi stated in the meeting that there were only several representatives members attended the hearing so that it was impossible to make any decision. “We have invited Nagan Raya Regent  but he’s not present at all. Nothing we can do Do we have to force them?“ he explained. He promised to organized another meeting with farmers and all stakeholders. (Source: Serambinews.com)