Herbal Plants to be Cultivated in Perhutani Areas

Tempo Interactive, Tuesday, 28 September, 2010 | 20:41 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Semarang: Agriculture Minister Suswono said herbal plant farmers can use the state forest company, Perhutani’s space to cultivate herbal plants. Suswono was responding to farmers’ complaints about the little area they had to work on. “Please contact the local Perhutani to use the land for herbal plantations,” Suswono said during a meeting dialog with farmers in Ungaran, Semarang, yesterday.

Suswono said Perhutani has a program called “Managing Forests Together with the People,” through which farmers are allowed to utilize Perhutani areas to plant herbal plants among the existing hard plants. Seman, a farmer from Karanganyar, complained about the lack of area for herbal plant cultivation. “If only the farmers had the space and enough capital, the welfare of medicinal plant farmers would improve,” he said.

SOHIRIN