After Indonesia’s agriculture minister announced a programme that aimed to attract young people to take up farming jobs with higher income, social media posts surfaced claiming to share the registration page for the scheme. The ministry told AFP the posts are a “scam” and applications are made offline.

“Registration for the 2024 Millennial Farmer with 10 million rupiah salary ($610) is open,” reads the Indonesian-language text overlay on an image shared on a Facebook post on February 10.

The image shows Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman and actor Raffi Ahmad, President Prabowo Subianto’s special envoy for young people. It also bears the official logo of the agriculture ministry on the upper left corner (archived here and here).

“The 2024 Millennial Farmer Programme initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia has been opened again!” reads part of the caption to the post which includes a link to an online portal.

The purported registration page asks users for their full name, location and Telegram number.

Similar posts began surfacing on Facebook and Instagram after local media reported in October 2024 that Amran said the government aimed to attract young people to farming jobs through a programme that could yield salaries higher than the average agriculture wages (archived link).

Many social media users appeared to believe the posts shared genuine registration pages for the programme.

“I’m ready sir, what should I prepare,” one commented.

“I’m keen, where’s the location, I hope this is real,” wrote another.

But the agriculture ministry’s spokesman Arief Cahyono told AFP on February 19 the posts are a “scam”.

“We do not assign certain groups to coordinate [the registration],” he said.

Posts about the programme on the ministry’s official Instagram and Facebook accounts on November 30 said those interested to apply can do so “through their local Agriculture Agency or the Agriculture Counseling Agency” (archived links here and here).

Arief added online link to the programme is “currently deactivated“.

AFP has previously debunked scams misusing the names of prominent institutions in Indonesia to tout bogus cash handouts and raffle prizes.