PELAKITA.ID — President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto said fishermen’s incomes have increased by as much as 40 percent following government intervention through the Red-and-White Fishermen’s Village (Kampung Nelayan Merah Putih/KNMP) program.
According to Prabowo, the increase is an early indication that the program targeting coastal communities is beginning to have an impact on the lives and livelihoods of fishermen.
“Fishermen’s incomes have increased quite significantly. Some by 30 percent, some by 40 percent, and some even more,” Prabowo said, as quoted in a circulating video.
The President said the KNMP intervention currently remains at an early stage and forms part of an effort to develop a model for strengthening fishermen’s villages that can later be applied more broadly. The government, he said, has piloted the intervention with budgetary support of around Rp22 billion.
“We have started to make an intervention,” he said.
Prabowo is targeting around 1,300 fishermen’s villages to be included in the KNMP development program by the end of 2026. The program is then expected to expand further, reaching 5,000 fishermen’s villages by 2029.
According to Prabowo, the target is part of the government’s effort to strengthen coastal communities while building a more integrated fisheries economic value chain.
He said Indonesia has approximately 12,000 fishermen’s villages. With a target of 5,000 villages by 2029, the program would cover nearly 40 percent of the country’s total fishermen’s villages as identified by the government.
For Prabowo, developing fishermen’s villages is not merely about increasing household incomes. Coastal areas also have the potential to become part of the national fisheries supply chain, including supporting higher fish exports and generating foreign exchange for the country.
“This will not only increase their income; it can also generate foreign exchange for us through fish exports,” he said.
In the President’s view, strengthening fishermen’s villages is also closely connected to national food needs. Fish is considered an important source of protein for the population, particularly when the prices of other food commodities, such as beef, remain relatively high.
For this reason, KNMP is not intended to operate as a standalone program. The government wants to integrate fishermen’s villages with Red-and-White Village/Subdistrict Cooperatives (Koperasi Desa/Kelurahan Merah Putih), creating clearer marketing channels for fishery products produced by local communities.
The integration is expected to address one of the longstanding challenges faced by fishermen: market certainty after catches or other fishery products have been landed or produced. With cooperatives becoming part of the supply chain, local production is expected to be absorbed to meet food demand while simultaneously stimulating village economies.
“With fishermen’s villages integrated with the Red-and-White Cooperatives, the cooperatives’ demand for fish can be supplied. So they will no longer have to worry about where their offtake will go,” Prabowo said.
The scheme brings together two needs: increasing production and incomes among fishing communities on the one hand, and strengthening food distribution and market access on the other. The government can then develop an ecosystem connecting fishermen, cooperatives, domestic markets and export opportunities.
Prabowo also emphasized the significance of the program because it reaches communities in some of the country’s most remote areas. He said efforts to improve the livelihoods of fishermen are part of a broader development agenda that must reach coastal regions across Indonesia.
“What is encouraging is that after 81 years, this is reaching areas that are extremely remote,” Prabowo said.
With targets of 1,300 fishermen’s villages by the end of 2026 and 5,000 by 2029, the government now faces the challenge of ensuring that the KNMP model can operate consistently across Indonesia’s diverse coastal regions.
The program’s sustainability will depend greatly on the government’s ability to strengthen village economic institutions, maintain fisheries productivity, ensure market access, and connect fishermen’s interests with the national food supply chain.
For coastal communities, however, the ultimate measure of success will not simply be the number of villages included in the program, but the extent to which the intervention can deliver higher incomes, greater market certainty, stronger businesses, and more decent livelihoods for fishing families.
The government is targeting the expansion of KNMP to 5,000 villages by 2029. The figure forms part of a broader ambition to transform fishermen’s villages from merely locations where fish are produced into coastal economic hubs connected to cooperatives, domestic markets, processing industries, and international export markets.
