InfoSAWIT, SUNGAI MELAYU -Two decades ago, Budi Wahono (57) of Yogyakarta decided to be smallholder in PIR-Trans. Though it was a little bit too late, it did not stop his will to join the second period in joining the program.

In 1996 Budi Wahono moved to West Kalimantan Province together with 70 other families by using ship. “In 1996, I decided to join PIR-Trans in West Kalimantan,” he recently said in Sungai Melayu.

After two days in the location of PIR-Trans, Budi Wahono was directly trusted as the Head in duty of Village of Sungai Melayu. “I stayed for two days here, but my friends directly elected me as the Head in duty of Village and three years later, in 2001, I was the Head of Village of Sungai Melayu until 2013,” he told.

When he led the village, the problems happened because Benua Indah Group (BIG) as the partner of the smallholders faced financial issue. In the end of August, the company went to bankrupt. Budi continued, most of the plasma smallholders of BIG in 16 villages had no salary. “We ourselves should survive. We did anything. We sold the FFB about Rp 300 per kilogram to the nearest factory. There was nothing left,” he mentioned.

For almost eight years, the villagers having plasma areas did it. In the end, when the rumor said, the assests of BIG were bought by Bumitama Gunajaya Agro (BGA) Group through the auction, this was the good news for them to rise. “The smallholders’ income gets better. The cultivation of the area is now improved,” he said.

Not only that, the cooperation within main – plasma scheme that BGA runs, Budi told, would decrease the stealing and the villagers could cooperate with the company. “Of course, there will be profits for the smallholders,” he said. (T2)