New Zealand pledges more support to Rio Tinto's farming program

The government of New Zealand pledged more supports to the farmer empowerment program run by the Rio Tinto Foundation in West Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, Kaltim Post daily reported.

New Zealand's ambassador in Indonesia Michael Green said his government made the decision after witnessing that the program was successful and beneficial to the local farmers.

"The program is good because it encouraged the farmers to be independent and they are no longer dependent on the government," the ambassador said on Sunday during a visit to Rio Tinto's farming training center in Bigung Baru village.

Green also visited the gold mine of PT Kelian Equatorial Mining, a subsidiary of Anglo-Australian mining firm Rio Tinto, in Long Iram, West Kutai.

According to foundation executive director Tom Malik, the New Zealand governor had channeled Rp 220 million in fund to support the foundation's plant-disease elimination program which was started in March 1999.

The program covered 40 villages in four districts of West Kutai. Each village sent one to two farmers to the training center to study plant-disease techniques. They later returned to their own villagers to train fellow farmers.

Head of the West Kutai regency's agriculture office Syahruni Zailani said his office fully supported the foundation's program as the regency lacked human resources to train the farmers across the regency in eliminating plant diseases. He said there were only two officials tasked with the job. (*)