House factions express concern over food security

House factions express concern over food security

JAKARTA (JP): Factions at the House of Representatives
expressed concern yesterday over the volatility of Indonesia's
food security and called on the government to prevent further
conversion of agricultural lands for non-agricultural use.

Spokesman Djuwardi Effendi from the Indonesian Democratic
Party (PDI) and spokesman Saleh Khalid from the United
Development Party (PPP) said during a House plenary session that
the government should try harder to maintain Indonesia's food
security.

The two parties were particularly concerned about the
situation of Indonesia's rice production, which is the staple
food for most of the country's 195 million people.

The spokesmen voiced their concern during the preliminary
session deliberating the government-sponsored food bill, which
was attended by Minister of Food Ibrahim Hasan.

Djuwardi acknowledged that maintaining self-sufficiency in
rice for 12 years was a difficult task.

The reason for this, he said, was not only because of an
increase in population, but also because the government had
allowed extensive conversion of agricultural lands for non-
agricultural purposes.

Government offices, he said, also failed to carry out sound
coordination -- particularly during harvest seasons -- leaving
farmers vulnerable to middlemen.

Djuwardi also blamed faulty weather predictions and shortages
of rice seedlings and fertilizers during planting seasons, which,
in turn, forced farmers to buy them at extremely high prices.

"Apart from that, village cooperatives, which have the
responsibility of purchasing harvests from farmers, often fail to
provide funding on time. Since farmers need cash urgently, they
turn to middlemen who buy their rice at very low prices," he
said.

Indonesia was the biggest rice importer in the world before it
gained self-sufficiency in 1983. In 1994 and 1995, however,
unfavorable weather and diseases forced the country to rely
partly on imports.

Djuwardi said Indonesia currently requires 26 million tons of
rice a year. But domestic production in the last three years
failed to meet this demand.

In 1994, he said, Indonesia imported 2.4 million tons of rice
and in 1995, another 2.9 million tons.

"When we speak of food security, we must never disregard
farmers, who actually play the biggest role in providing rice,"
he said.

Similarly, PPP spokesman Saleh said that the government did
not pay enough attention to the well-being of farmers.

"Instead, the government has allowed farmers to be thrown out
of their own land by large-scale industrial, housing and other
non-agricultural projects. The farmers are forced to work as
laborers in their own fields," he said.

Saleh said the rice shortage that occurred in the last couple
of years was a "bad sign" for the future of the country's food
stock.

Since Indonesia achieved self-sufficiency in rice in 1993, he
said, agricultural land has declined from 16.7 million hectares
to 15.9 million hectares.

"The loss on Java alone reached 0.9 million hectares, but this
was offset by the opening of 0.1 million hectares of agricultural
land outside Java," he said.

In 1983, agricultural land in Java totaled 5.5 million
hectares but in 1993, only 4.6 million hectares were left.

Meanwhile, during the same period, agricultural land outside
Java increased from 11.2 million hectares to 11.3 million
hectares.

The PPP faction said the small credit allocation of banks for
agricultural projects also showed how neglected the sector was.

In the 1990-1994 period, the agricultural sector obtained 7.6
percent of the credit allocated by banks. The industrial, trade
and services sectors obtained 31.2 percent, 23.8 percent and 25.5
percent respectively, Saleh said. (pwn)