SOUTH BANGKA – Agricultures sector has an important role in maintaining food security. Especially farmers who plant food and horticulture. Therefore, through Micro Small Bussiness Funding (PUMK), for asset loan, PT Timah Tbk made the agriculture and gardening sector one of the target recipients.
Iman Qolbi, a farmer from Rias village, South Bangka Regency utilizes the PUMK program from PT Timah Tbk. He managed a 1,5-hectare land. In a year, he could plant around 2-3 times brown rice paddy.
He told that 1-time harvest can produce him 2-3 tons of rice up to the weather and any other natural factors. Nevertheless, he said that became a farmer is a promising profession economically if done seriously. Especially, their area is well known as rice barn in Bangka Belitung Islands Province.
“I only own 1,5-hectare land, here we call it 5 squares. I have been planting brown rice since the beginning, because of the high price and it has many fans. The color won’t get affected even if the rice took longer to dry,” he says.
As he looks at other opportunities, not just being a farmer, he also started a rice mill business. He then bought paddy from other farmers, and sell them straight to the customers.
“Because there aren’t many rice fields, so I open up rice mill look for another business opportunity. Farmers grind paddy to me, some farmers board out their rice to me, some just grind and pay. So, (I’m) using any chances available,” he said.
According to him, while taking care of his rice field and waiting for harvest season he sold the farmers' rice to some market in Pangkalpinang city and some other regions.
The rice variants he sold are brown rice and white rice with the brand name ‘Rias Makmur’. He said, in a month he could sell around tens of tons of rice, both variants produced by the farmers from their village, as the rice has a quite high amount of enthusiasts.
His rice mill and rice selling business are keep growing, yet, his team is a bit overwhelmed to dry out the paddies during rainy seasons. This causes their rice stock to decrease as the drying process still uses sun rays to get done.
“Just like these 2 tons of paddy from the most recent harvest, they haven’t dried out yet. It keeps raining and we can only rely on sun lights to dry these paddies out even though the market demands rice every day,” he frowned.
That is why he became PT Timah Tbk Fostered Partners to keep his developing his business by owning a rice oven. With this oven, he wouldn’t need to depend on the sunlight to dry out his paddy. If he needs 3-4 days to dry out the paddy in hot weather, with the oven he will only need 12 hours, and the rice is dried and ready to get grind.
“I became PT Timah Tbk Fostered Partners in 2020, I took advantage (of this program) to start my rice paddy oven business. I’m currently beginning to prepare for the business, for example, providing land. So, I have been using the fund I received from PT Timah Tbk for that land, reusing it again as rice field’s capital, and bought the farmers rice to be resold,” he exclaimed.
He thinks that this PT Timah Tbk’s capital program has helped him in developing his business and also offers a solution to the drying system issue for farmers in his village.
“I have been gradually preparing this oven because it needs huge funding. Hopefully, PT Timah Tbk will keep entrusting the capital loan to realize this plan. The farmers won’t be confused about drying out their paddy during the rainy season,” he added.
He stated, besides helping with fundings, PT Timah Tbk also helped by promoting his product, like on TINS Gallery, and asked him to become a rice supplier for some grocery packages supports for the community from PT Timah.
“Yes, my products are now available in TINS Gallery, PT Timah sometimes would buy my rice. Like last time when distributing grocery packages, we were asked to prepare 500 kgs,” he conveyed.
He claimed that his products are available not only in traditional markets but also in modern retails. He hoped in the future he could produce premium quality rice.
“Hopefully with PT Timah Tbk’s support I could produce premium quality rice. I wish for PT Timah CSR Team and more capital programs like this can reach more farmers, so they won’t find difficulty about their funding,” he ended.
