Production of unhusked rice up only 4% this year
Production of unhusked rice up only 4% this year
JAKARTA (JP): Unhusked rice production this year is estimated to increase only 4 percent to about 52 million tons, Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said yesterday.
Speaking to reporters at a year's end meeting, the minister pointed out that the lower than expected increase was due to several problems which the agriculture ministry could not solve without the cooperation of other government institutions.
He cited the problem of fertilizer distribution, which remains a heated issue in the agricultural sector. A number of farmers in Trenggalek, East Java, burned a cooperative in the town yesterday because there was no fertilizer for sale.
Similar incidents have occurred in other provinces. Many farmers have decried the scarcity of the fertilizer supply and blamed it on the village cooperatives.
Rice production was also affected by the decrease in harvested acreage because many rice fields, particularly in Java, have been converted into settlement and industrial sites.
The total area of rice fields in the country dropped from 16.7 million hectares in 1983 to 15.9 million hectares in 1993.
He said this year had the potential for increased rice production. "The climate has been very friendly to agriculture. There was no disease and we managed to launch higher yielding varieties."
The minister had expected an increase of 6 percent in rice production.
"Due to this year's reality, we will have to work very hard next year to compensate for the shortage," he said.
Next year's rice production is expected to increase at least 5 percent. The agriculture ministry will pursue the target through a number of programs that include breakthroughs in agricultural technology and opening new rice fields outside of Java.
The government plans to convert one million hectares of peat in Central Kalimantan into agricultural land. About two thirds of the area will be developed as rice fields and the rest for other crops.
The project will cost US$5 million per hectare.
The government also plans to launch special programs to increase the production of corn, which is needed for animal and poultry feed.
Plantation
During the meeting, the agriculture minister said the government will soon -- probably early next year -- start the second nucleus estate and smallholder (NES) plantation program in the eastern part of Indonesia.
"The NES plantations, which will cover an area of 500,000 ha, will be linked with transmigration activities as was the case with the first program," he said.
The second NES plantation project -- the first was carried out in the 1970s and 1980s in the western part of the country -- will be implemented in Irian Jaya, Southeast and Central Sulawesi, Central Kalimantan and Maluku.
"Besides, we'll also improve the efficiency of the state-owned plantation companies (PTP)," the minister said.
He added that the Ministry of Agriculture will soon restructure the 26 PTPs into 14 PTPs.
In the next stage of development the ministry will select several PTPs considered qualified to sell their shares on the stock exchanges.
There has been concern over the efficiency of the state-owned plantation companies recently. Director General of Plantations Muhammad Badrum has warned that inefficiency will render the state plantation commodities uncompetitive on the international and domestic markets. (13)