Lampung braces for rice stock deficit this year

Lampung braces for rice stock deficit this year

Oyos Saroso, The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung

Rice production in Lampung has significantly decreased this year
due to recent natural disasters in the province, with at least a
15,800 ton shortage in stocks compared with 2001.

Until last December, the provincial logistics agency (Dolog)
accommodated only 75,000 tons of unhulled paddy or 40,700 tons of
rice from farmers. In the previous year, it bought 93,000 tons of
unhulled paddy from them.

In addition, there are now only 27,000 tons of rice being
stored in Dolog's local warehouses, though the state agency has
to distributed 10,000 tons of rice per month and allocates at
least 9,500 tons for civil servants, including military and
police officers.

For the quota of poor people in the province, Dolog allocates
500 tons of rice under a low pricing scheme.

"It means Dolog still lacks at least 15,800 tons of rice
stocks for 2002," Lampung's Dolog head of operations Bachtaruddin
told The Jakarta Post.

To address the shortages, he said his office was considering
buying rice from other provinces or importing it again.

Bachtaruddin expressed concern over the fact that Lampung
could not rely on its own production this year though the
province is known as one of the nation's rice barns.

He said that over the last three years, Lampung Dolog's rice
stocks depended solely on local production.

However, he denied the sharp decrease in rice prices in
several subdistricts in the province following last month's
harvest. "It's not true that the rice price went down to Rp 850
per kilogram because Dolog's task force has been continually
buying rice and apart from that many buyers from other regions
are interested in rice from Lampung."

Unhulled rice is officially sold at between Rp 1,095, 1,285
and 1,519 per kilogram.

Bachtaruddin said that up until March 7, Dolog had collected
10,400 tons of unhulled rice from all regencies in Lampung
through at least 40 private contractors.

The collection of unhulled rice involved five task forces with
an accommodation capacity of 600 tons, he added.

"Since the last three years, village unit cooperatives (KUD)
have no longer been involved in providing rice for Dolog from
farmers. Many KUDs have been blacklisted, so they are not
illegible to serve as partners," he said.

Head of the Lampung agriculture office Masdulhaq said that the
price of unhulled rice from farmers set at between Rp 1,200 and
Rp 1,300 per kilogram was still normal.

He admitted that in several remote subdistricts, like
Rawajitu, unhulled rice was sold at Rp 850 per kilogram, adding
that the price is also still normal due to difficult
transportation to the areas, where it takes more than three hours
by motorized boat.

Masdulhaq brushed aside claims that the shortages of 15,800
tons of rice stocks in Lampung were because of a decline in the
province's production.

It was merely prompted by farmers reluctance to sell all their
harvest produce at once amid the decreasing prices, he argued.

"Unlike last year, farmers are holding some of their unhulled
rice until the price improves," he said.

The price of unhulled rice has decreased sharply to between Rp
800 and Rp 900 per kilogram in the four regencies of
Talangbawang, Tenggamus, Central Lampung and South Lampung, where
farmers were harvesting.

The prices could further decrease as Dolog had not given any
sign that it would intervene and buy the rice directly from
farmers, even though they would be producing 360,000 tons of rice
in total this month alone.

Suparno, a 52-year old farmer at Karya Jitu Mukti village in
Talangbawang, admitted that he has no longer enjoyed the results
of his harvest as the rice was bought at only Rp 800 per
kilogram.

He said the low price would only cover the production cost of
Rp 3 million for one hectare of rice field. "The price of Rp 800
per kilogram means, farmers will earn only Rp 3.2 million for
four tons of rice harvested from one hectare of farm land," he
added.