Jakarta (ANTARA) – Chief of Presidential Staff Office (KSP) Moeldoko has called on members of the Indonesian Scout Movement, which is dominated by youngsters, to directly involve themselves in the development of agriculture to maintain the country’s food security.
“If the boy and girl scouts participate in bolstering Indonesia’s agriculture, they will help the government improve the country’s food security,” he noted here on Sunday which coincides with the 2022 National Scouts.
“Youngsters, who become the subject and object of Scout Movement, should care about the issues of agriculture and food resiliency,” he added.
According to the report from 2022 Scout Movement National Organization’s (Kwarnas’) Research and Development Center, the number of scout movement’s members in Indonesia is recorded at 25.27 million with 24.01 million of whom are young people.
The large number of Scout membership can be a strength that can help the government’s efforts to bolster the national food security in the midst of threat of global food crisis.
Moeldoko, concurrently the chairman of Indonesian Farmer Harmony Association (HKTI), further urged the people at large not to be pessimistic over the declining number of farmers.
The government has, for instance, pushed a movement of millennial farmers as well as digital transformation in the agriculture sector, he noted.
The young members of scout movement need to see that agriculture sector is not just about doing dirty work on the field, he said.
“In agriculture sector, there are various fields, including research, cultivation, trading, and technology development. The scope of agriculture sector is very broad,” he informed.
Meanwhile, Head of the National Scout Movement Kwarnas and President Director of Logistics Business Agency (Bulog) Budi Waseso highlighted a vision of encouraging the scout movement members to support the government’s national strategic programs by becoming agents of distribution, self-sufficiency, and national food security.
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