Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto is targeting to set up 80 thousand Red and White Village Cooperatives (KopDes), which will be equipped with trucks to market harvests, which will be provided through business credit facilities, and pharmacies.
"We hope that each village cooperative will have two trucks each in order to bring farmers' produce to the market," he said while delivering his speech at the national harvest agenda in Majalengka, West Java, on Monday.
Through village cooperatives, the government will support the provision of credit assistance for farmers and fishermen, including credit for buying trucks to market harvests, he informed.
Besides business credit assistance, the cooperatives will have a cold storage room to store harvests and fish caught by fishermen, he said.
In addition, the cooperatives will distribute subsidized fertilizers from the government, which would be accessed directly by farmer groups, he disclosed.
"The fertilizers can be directly accessed by farmer groups to cut intermediaries or middlemen," he explained.
Prabowo said that each cooperative will also have a village pharmacy that sells generic drugs at affordable prices to the community.
"The generic drugs are intended to be accessed by the people at affordable prices, where the price can be a third or even 10 percent of the price in the cities," he expounded.
He then expressed the hope that the village cooperatives will assist fishermen in selling their products at affordable prices to the community, ranging from Rp40 thousand—Rp50 thousand (US$2.34—US$2.93) per kilogram.
The president emphasized that he hopes to lower food prices for the people and increase farmers' welfare by ensuring they earn sufficient income.
On March 3, 2025, Prabowo announced his plan to establish an economic activity center in each village called the Red and White Village Cooperative to absorb local agricultural products and shorten the distribution chain to consumers.
