Drought drives govt to reduce forecast of rice production
Drought drives govt to reduce forecast of rice production
JAKARTA (JP): This year's long dry season has forced the
Ministry of Agriculture to revise its forecast for the country's
production of unhusked rice to 34.31 million tons from its
previous forecast of 47 million tons, down 27 percent.
After attending a ceremony for the inauguration of new
officials of the ministry, Director General of Food Crops and
Horticulture Amrin Kahar told journalists yesterday that the
decrease in production will not cause a serious shortage in rice
supplies.
He said that with a stock of 1.1 million tons of rice owned by
the National Logistics Agency (Bulog), the planned deliveries of
650,000 tons from countries which are repaying rice previously
borrowed from Indonesia, and the planned imports of another
250,000 tons, supplies on the domestic market will be adequate.
He explained that Cuba, the Philippines and Zanzibar will
deliver their repayments of rice in the second half of the year,
while imports from Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam will arrive
next month.
In comparison, last year's production of unhusked rice reached
47.6 million tons, the equivalent to 30.9 million tons of husked
rice. The country's consumption was estimated at 25 million tons
last year.
Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah, who
swore in the new officials at the ceremony yesterday,
acknowledged that as of this month, 189,253 hectares of rice
fields have been affected by the drought and around 33,286
hectares of them have been destroyed.
"We hope this year's drought will not be as bad as that in
1991 when drought affected around 800,000 hectares of rice
fields," he said.
Sjarifudin explained that the areas heavily effected by the
drought are West Java, especially Indramayu and Cirebon, Central
Java, particularly Ngawi and Cilacap, and East Java, particularly
Boyolali.
"The affected fields are mostly those which fully depend on
rainfall. Irrigated fields are not badly affected by the
drought," he said.
He said the government has taken measures to help farmers
whose rice fields have been affected by the drought. The
government, for example, has provided rice seeds which can be
planted in dry areas, and have installed water pumps.
Animal feed
At the same occasion, Sjarifudin also denied rumors saying
that animal feed prices will increase due to the drought after a
recent slight decline.
"There is no reason for an increase in the prices of animal
feed because the government has lowered duties on imports of corn
and soybean meal, materials used for the production of animal
feed," he said.
The government, under a deregulation issued on June 27, has
lowered import duties on animal feed ingredients from 10 percent
to five percent.
After the introduction of the new regulation, prices of animal
feed declined by Rp 10 to Rp 490 per kilogram.
Chairman of the Indonesian Association of Poultry Husbandry
(PPUI) Alie Abubakar was quoted by Antara as saying that with the
deregulation, prices should have declined around Rp 25 per
kilogram. (als)