JAKARTA, Saco-Indonesia.com - Menteri BUMN Dahlan Iskan mengaku terkejut mendengar informasi bahwa harga jengkol di sejumlah pasar menembus Rp 50.000 setiap kilogramnya.

"Waduh...kenapa mahal seperti itu. Padahal, jengkol itu makanan kesukaan istri saya. Kalau begitu kasihan dong istri saya," kata Dahlan, usai mengikuti Rapat Kerja dengan Komisi VI DPR-RI di Gedung MPR/DPR, Jakarta, Senin (3/6/2013).

Menurut Pria kelahiran Magetan, Jatim, dirinya tidak mempermasalahkan kenaikan harga jengkol hingga melebihi harga daging ayam. "Saya tidak suka jengkol soalnya, tapi kalau pete (petai) saya suka. Harga pete naik gak yah?" ujar mantan Dirtu PLN ini sembari bertanya kepada wartawan.

Ia menuturkan, kalau harga jengkol melambung tentunya yang kewalahan adalah sang istri Ny Nafsiah Sabri. "Istri saya doyan jengkol. Dia selalu membeli jengkol dalam jumlah banyak untuk persediaan," ujar mantan wartawan ini, sambil tersenyum.

Mantan Dirut PT PLN itu menuturkan ketika berbelanja di pasar Santa, kawasan Kebayoran Baru, istrinya selalu membeli jengkol 5 kilogram sekaligus.

Sebelumnya diberitakan, harga jengkol di sejumlah pasar di Jabodetabek dan sekitarnya sudah mencapai Rp 50.000 perkilogram. Jengkol yang dalam bahasa latin disebut dengan "archidendron pauciflorum", bahkan sudah melonjak hingga sekitar 100 persen di sejumlah lokasi. Kenaikan harga jengkol ternyata juga diikuti harga pete yang melonjak tajam.

Namun, menanggapi harga jengkol yang melangit tersebut, Dahlan mengaku harus ikut berbagi pemikiran bagaimana solusi menurunkan harganya. "Harus ada solusinya. Bila perlu BUMN membentuk perusahaan khusus untuk mengembangkan tanaman jengkol. Bisa saja dibentuk PTPN XIV yang mengurusi jengkol dan pete," ujar Dahlan bercanda sambil berlalu memasuki kendaraannya.

Untuk diketahui saja, jumlah BUMN Perkebunan saat ini hanya sampai dengan PTPN IV.

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KATHMANDU, Nepal — When the dense pillar of smoke from cremations by the Bagmati River was thinning late last week, the bodies were all coming from Gongabu, a common stopover for Nepali migrant workers headed overseas, and they were all of young men.

Hindu custom dictates that funeral pyres should be lighted by the oldest son of the deceased, but these men were too young to have sons, so they were burned by their brothers or fathers. Sukla Lal, a maize farmer, made a 14-hour journey by bus to retrieve the body of his 19-year-old son, who had been on his way to the Persian Gulf to work as a laborer.

“He wanted to live in the countryside, but he was compelled to leave by poverty,” Mr. Lal said, gazing ahead steadily as his son’s remains smoldered. “He told me, ‘You can live on your land, and I will come up with money, and we will have a happy family.’ ”

Weeks will pass before the authorities can give a complete accounting of who died in the April 25 earthquake, but it is already clear that Nepal cannot afford the losses. The countryside was largely stripped of its healthy young men even before the quake, as they migrated in great waves — 1,500 a day by some estimates — to work as laborers in India, Malaysia or one of the gulf nations, leaving many small communities populated only by elderly parents, women and children. Economists say that at some times of the year, one-quarter of Nepal’s population is working outside the country.