Legislator: Anticipate Surge in Food Prices and Drought Impacts

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Member of the Indonesian House of Representatives Commission IV, Eko Wahyudi, has reminded the government to anticipate surges in food prices and the impacts of drought following predictions that this year’s dry season will be longer than in previous years. In a statement received in Jakarta on Friday, Eko said the government needs to optimise mapping and cross-sectoral mitigation in areas and regions affected by drought. “With support from tools and infrastructure, starting from programmes to optimise irrigation, irrigation rehabilitation, reservoirs, utilisation of shallow water, deep and shallow wells, pump irrigation, and piped irrigation, as well as regulating planting patterns with drought-resistant varieties,” he said. He also hopes the government will intensively monitor food prices so that price surges can be intervened through policies and programmes. For example, egg prices have recently declined, while feed prices continue to rise. He said one approach that can be taken is to absorb egg production for government programmes, such as the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG). “To mitigate losses for laying hen farmers due to high feed prices and low selling prices, the National Nutrition Agency can direct nutrition fulfilment service units as implementing units of the MBG programme to absorb egg production to stabilise prices and benefit local farmers,” he stated. On the other hand, the agriculture sector legislator appreciated the government, which is deemed successful in maintaining national food stocks, particularly rice. Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman, during a working meeting with Commission IV of the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Tuesday (7/4), explained that national rice stocks are sufficient to meet public consumption needs for the next 11 months. “This is an extraordinary and historic achievement. Even though we know the world is not doing well. Amid the increasingly directionless Middle East conflict, global food prices have risen by 2.4 percent, and escalation in prices could change very quickly,” he said.