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