House members concerned over low rice prices<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): House of Representatives members voiced their
\nconcern yesterday with the low prices that the National Logistics
\nAgency (Bulog) pays to farmers for their rice.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Bambang Sigit from the House Commission IV overseeing
\nagricultural and forestry affairs, said in a hearing with
\nDirector General for Food Crops and Horticulture Amrin Kahar that
\nfarmers in Nganjuk of East Java, for example, claim that they can
\nsell their rice to private vendors at prices of up to Rp 750 per
\nkilo (34 U.S. cents), far higher than the Rp 657 offered by Bulog
\nthrough village cooperatives.<\/p>\n
\"When I heard this from the farmers, I told them to sell to
\nprivate vendors. I didn't know if this was right, but I did it
\nonly out of concern for their welfare,\" she said.<\/p>\n
She said that the low prices may be the reason that farmers
\nare reluctant to sell rice to Bulog. \"Perhaps, that is why
\nBulog's stocks of rice remain low,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Bulog, which was set up to manage the distribution of basic
\nfood commodities and maintain their prices at a reasonable level
\nthrough market operations, has lately been criticized for not
\nbeing able to keep staple food prices at a minimum level.<\/p>\n
Prices of staple food, especially rice, have been soaring
\nlately and added significantly to the country's high inflation
\nrate.<\/p>\n
Amrin acknowledged that many factors influenced the production
\nlevel of rice, including unfavorable weather and the decline in
\nirrigated land in Java due to industrial and housing
\ndevelopments.<\/p>\n
The total area of rice fields in the country, he said, dropped
\nfrom 16.7 million hectares in 1983, of which 5.5 million were in
\nJava alone, to only 15.9 million hectares in 1993, of which 4.6
\nmillion hectares were in Java.<\/p>\n
Outside Java, where soil is less favorable, the area of rice
\nfields increased at a slow rate from 11.2 million hectares in
\n1983 to 11.3 million hectares in 1993.<\/p>\n
Although rice productivity has been increasing at a rate of
\nthree percent from 1988 to 1993, it dropped by 3.2 percent to
\n46.6 million tons last year. Compared to 1993, rice fields have
\nalso decreased by 2.5 percent to 10.7 million hectares last year
\nand productivity by 0.7 percent to 4.35 tons per hectare.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, State Minister of Food Ibrahim Hasan told House
\nmembers on Thursday that Indonesia, from its international trade
\nof foodstuffs, recorded a 26 percent increase to $2.2 billion
\nover 1993.<\/p>\n
He said that foodstuff exports last year rose by 30 percent to
\n$3.94 billion over 1993 in spite of the 36 percent increase in
\nimports to $1.77 billion.(pwn)<\/p>",
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