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)