Misconceptions About IPB That Lead The Public Into The Dissociative Thinking
[Personal Opinion]
“IPB stands for Institut Perbankan Bogor”
This kind of mindset has been structured in our heads for all this time that most of IPB’s students will be working in the banking and economic sector by the time they graduate.
According to the data that was made in 2015 (I couldn’t find the latest chart I’m sorry), above 70% alumni of Institut Pertanian Bogor work linearly with the major they took, I’m gonna attach the chart here.
So it’s clearly a big question mark every time you guys say “Institut perbankan bogor” or “Institut pencetak bankir” because there are still many alumni of IPB who work linearly (according to the chart i’ve attached).
Ok now let’s just say most of IPB’s alumni indeed work in the banking sector, you should know that there must be some external factors that make IPB’s alumni don’t wanna work in the agriculture sector and here’s why.
1. The Deterioration of Our Agriculture Sector
Agriculture sector in Indonesia is still unpopular and underestimated comparing to the other sectors and it makes many agriculturalists feel unsure about their job prospects.
What mainly causes this sector unpopular and underestimated? the pricing policy towards the commodity.
Our agricultural price policy still can’t protect our farmers properly because we keep on importing commodities from other countries that slowly lowers our local commodity prices. Here’s the chart of the imported commodities over the past few years.
Take a look at our rice supply, according to the data from Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS), our rice production in 2018 has reached 32 million tons, whilst the consumption reached around 29 million tons. The difference between the amount of rice produced and the amount of rice consumed shows that in fact our country experienced a surplus of approximately 3 million tons of rice. Farmer’s goods selling prices are getting suppressed due to compete with the imported commodities.
By importing commodities from other countries, yes you can get the affordable prices as well as you can kill our local markets and farmers.
2. The Occurrence Of The Large-Scale Land Use Change
Land use change or more often called “alih fungsi lahan” is a conversion of a piece of land’s use by humans, from one purpose to another. Is land use change bad?
Of course it is, if it’s happening in a large-scale. This land use change has been massively happening since 1990 even till now. Imagine 100.000 hectares of land in this country is switching its function from crop land into industrial land every year. This ironically happened in Pulau Jawa, where Pulau Jawa lost 2.170.000 hectares in total, from 2006 till 2013, tragic isn’t it?
One of the areas that significantly has experienced this massive land use change is Pantura that is located in West Java. Pantura was known as the nation’s granary back in 1984 because Pantura thrived to contribute to achieve the food self-sufficiency (swasembada pangan). Now it seems like Pantura has called it a day because it has lost 39.830 hectares of its crop land according to the census of agriculture.
3. Farmer’s increasing needs
Moving along with the times, farmers’ needs these days are plenty and we can’t deny that. What would you do if you were a farmer that has no money because of your goods just can’t compete in the trade competition but at the same time you need to fulfill your family’s needs?
Here’s a glimpse of data that shows farmer’s needs in North Kalimantan
Village fund (Dana Desa) is planned by our government to develop the village and to fulfill its needs. But sadly we are still allocating those funds into infrastructure and infrastructure only.
“All this time our village fund is mainly focused on infrastructure whilst it should be equally focused on the agricultural revitalization, animal husbandry, and the infrastructure itself”
said by Tommy Soeharto 24th March 2019
Those 3 problems create a disproportion in our agriculture sector that makes the fresh graduates don’t want to start up their careers as agriculturalists or even farmers because of how risky our agriculture sector is. Therefore, there’s a possibility where agriculture students will work non-linearly with the major they took.
Now, why does it have to be the banking sector (perbankan)? You need to know that this banking sector opens massive job vacancies every year and it’s recorded that 2 of the top 4 companies that have the most workers are from the banking sector, they are Bank BRI and Bank Danamon.
Here we can conclude that banking sector is one of the most popular sectors because everyone from every major can easily work here, again I repeat it’s open for all majors.
There are also 2 internal factors that make many alumni of IPB work in the banking sector.
1. Critical Thinking That Is Owned By Every Student
Every student in IPB has the suitable capabilities to work in the banking sector and for me personally as a college student of IPB, I do admit that. Our systems thinking is remarkable. At facing problems, we always overcome them structurally. This kind of competence really is needed by many banks out there.
2. Keen Numerical Analysis Every Student Has
Our numerical analysis is also portentous. Of course that makes us suitable to work in the banking sector because in PPKU (Program Pendidikan Kompetensi Umum) all students from every major have to learn economy and that pretty much explains why we are good at things that are related to banks.
Now, society and all medias are blaming IPB for its failure to lead its alumni to work in agriculture sector as a farmer while actually it’s not IPB’s fault.
IPB provides us proper education but the reality just doesn’t go along the same lines. Our fresh graduates don’t wanna gamble to work in the sector they belong to because of how risky agriculture sector is.
Our human resources are actually well-qualified and ready to develop Indonesia’s agriculture, but never forget they’re humans anyway. They also need income to fulfill their needs as a human by working reciprocal with the through-going sector and Indonesia’s agriculture is not well-rounded enough for them.
Here banking is like an alternative for these fresh graduates to continue their lives, so we can’t fully blame them because to be honest if i were them i would do the same thing.
Do you still want to blame IPB for this? The ball is in your court.
