Maintaining rice self-sufficiency vital: Minister
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said again yesterday that it was important to maintain self- sufficiency in rice because importing too much rice could lead to economic and political instability.
At a hearing with members of the House of Representatives' Commission IV for agriculture, forestry and transmigration issues, Sjarifudin said rice was still a strategic commodity that influenced most of the country's key economic indicators, including inflation rates.
"So if Indonesia imports too much rice, it would be the same as importing instability," he said.
"When Indonesia joins free trade, it means that not only can manufactured goods freely enter the country, but agricultural products as well," he said.
He said it was estimated that in 2003 Indonesia would need at least 10 million hectares of rice fields to produce the 60 million tons of (unhusked) rice needed to maintain self- sufficiency that year.
This meant an additional two million to 2.5 million hectares were needed and most of this was expected to be outside Java.
The estimates were based on predictions of a 1.6-percent annual population growth and a 5.5-percent growth in the annual per capita income.
Sjarifudin said rice consumption was 130 kilograms per capita per year, down from 135 kg about four years ago.
The decline was a result of a rise in per capita income that led to more extensive food diversification.
"Rice fields in Java are diminishing at a rate of 40,000 hectares to 50,000 hectares a year. Most were converted into non- agricultural areas but some are developed into horticulture crop areas," he said.
He said the government was now carrying out programs which would enable Indonesia to maintain its rice self-sufficiency which was achieved for the first time in 1984.
The government intended to increase the productivity of rice fields, which now stood at around 4.5 tons per hectare, he said.
Sjarifudin said the government would continue to promote high- quality rice varieties -- such as the Mamberamo, Cibodas and Maros varieties -- which could yield up to 6.5 tons per hectare.
"We also cooperate with the (Philippine-based) International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) which produces rice varieties that can yield up to 12 tons a hectare," he said.
Sjarifudin said only 30 percent of Indonesia's farmers used high-yield rice varieties.
At the same time, the government was also making efforts to extend the area of rice fields outside Java.
He acknowledged it was now difficult to source funds for developing huge irrigation systems. The government would therefore opt to build smaller, more simplified irrigation systems.
He said rice fields in tidal zones were also being developed as an alternative to using irrigation systems.
But he said that the government's ambitious one million hectare peat land project in Central Kalimantan was at a stage that required extra care.
The project involves converting one million hectares of peat land into agricultural areas, including rice fields.
He explained that the government's special team to oversee the project had decided not to wait until the project's drainage system was completed before starting planting.
"The special team decided that once part of the drainage system is finished, transmigrants should start relocating (from densely-populated Java) so they can begin (rice and horticulture crop) cultivating," he said.
It was discovered later on, however, that the drainage system and the floodgates did not function properly.
As a result, the government must take "emergency steps" to save the 2,000 hectares where planting and cultivating had already started, he said.
Peat land is a special type of soil which should be developed as soon as it is opened for cultivation, experts say.
Failing to do so -- and leaving it exposed to over-draining -- would result in the land being unproductive and unrecoverable for agricultural purposes.
Experts say that without additional minerals, the land is unsuitable for agriculture. (pwn)