Indonesia: Action of farmers throwing away milk and sovereignty of national dairy farmers

Seeing the demonstration of dairy farmers in Boyolali who threw away their cow's milk is truly very concerning. Meanwhile, the solution offered by the government also does not provide a guarantee for improving the future fate of farmers fundamentally and sustainably. ADVERTISEMENT They were only given promises by the government that milk importers would be required to accommodate the milk of local farmers with the threat of having their import permits revoked if they did not do so. There was no fundamental solution provided by the government. In our national dairy trade system so far, smallholder farmers are clearly in a very weak position. They are not only the target of the factories that accommodate their milk, but also victims of milk importers who receive import quota privileges from the government. The milk processing company can arbitrarily decide to reject or accept deposits of milk from smallholder farmers. Whether on the grounds of quality standards or the capacity that ...