Reform needed to boost food and agricultural production
Reform needed to boost food and agricultural production
Food and agriculture have played a major role in exacerbating
the economic crisis. Dr. H.S. Dillon, executive director of the
Center for Agricultural Policy Studies, discusses developments
under the new government.
Question: What do you think about the ministers responsible
for food, agriculture and forestry in President B.J. Habibie's
new cabinet?
Answer: I consider those trusted with the agriculture, food
and the forestry and estates portfolios as highly motivated and
capable. They certainly comprise a quantum improvement over their
predecessors. However, they are facing an uphill battle and are
racing against time.
We all know that everything is still in a flux. The previous
cabinet, formed by a very strong president Soeharto, lasted only
two months. The winds of change are blowing so strongly now that
it would be unrealistic to expect everybody to fully accept this
administration because so many of the ministers have been
Soeharto stalwarts.
The economic crisis is forcing Indonesia to accomplish a
comprehensive reform, while the problems facing our food and
agriculture sectors are immense and require immediate action.
Q: What policies should be introduced to enhance commodity
productivity?
A: The crisis has been a logical consequence of bad policies all
these years, and has exposed all the faults in our food and
agriculture system. Not only is our reliance on food imports very
high but now, there might be 60 million people living under the
poverty line compared to less than 20 million prior to July 1997.
The midterm challenges confronting Indonesians are:
* to raise production of all food commodities and products to
save foreign exchange through reduction of imports,
* to enhance productivity and exports of agriculture (and
forestry) commodities to generate badly needed foreign exchange,
and
* to design institutional and technological breakthroughs so that
policies to achieve the objectives would secure the food needs of
the poorest households during the transition, and alleviate rural
poverty while preserving the environment in the medium term.
However, much more pressing is the need to continue providing
adequate food at affordable prices to the general public. Thus,
in the short run, food price subsidies of more than Rp 5 trillion
are a reality that we'll simply have to live with.
Q: What priorities should the ministers take?
A: To acquire credibility. Just being named as ministers will no
longer suffice. They should lose no time in galvanizing their
demoralized bureaucracies into action.
There would be no need to bring in additional professors. The
bureaucracy already has a large number of very well-trained and
highly dedicated officials. However, most of them had been
intimidated into silence by former ministers and other superiors.
The newly appointed ministers should shed all the arrogance of
power cloaking their predecessors.
They should empower the good officials and give sycophants the
boot. All their actions should convey a very strong message that
they do not intend to enrich themselves.
A quick tally comparing the wealth amassed by the current
minister of social affairs and the present minister of
agriculture over the past five years would dispel any doubts
regarding the benefits accruing to office bearers in the previous
regime.
If the minister could initiate an investigation into the sale
of land owned by state plantation companies, the allocation of
crude palm oil, the swap of Ministry of Agriculture buildings and
the procurement of PTP Agrintara factory equipment, it would go
along way toward boosting morale.
Q: Could you briefly outline the reform agenda of the minister of
forestry and estates?
A: In forestry and estates, the minister would have to break the
dominance of private businesses over the bureaucracy. This should
be much easier now that their "patron" is no longer in power.
He should get a good grip by installing proreform officials
into key positions at the earliest, galvanize his ministry around
the effort to contain forest fires and see to it that those
guilty of contributing to forest fires are sanctioned.
He should initiate action to provide farmers, agroforesters,
and plantation laborers with a better deal. Distributing 60
percent of all existing plantations to laborers along the nucleus
estate and small-holder lines would lay a very strong foundation
under the people economy that is being widely touted as a
development objective.
However, he should call for an immediate halt to the sale of
government plantations. The plantations are hens laying golden
eggs. It is absurd to be selling the hens instead of the eggs.
Give laborers the land and watch productivity increase.
Q: How about the food minister's job?
A: The food minister should help to calm markets, focus upon
building food security for all households and reactivate early
warning food and warning systems.
He should continue to take the moral high ground and follow up
on his call for a replacement of ministerial Volvo cars with
Kijang vans. He should carefully study the origins of the current
crisis and put an end to policies which have increased our
reliance upon food imports, such as the consumption subsidies on
flour. He could also encourage the development of food safety
nets targeted to the vulnerable.
It would be advisable for him to encourage the development of
viable food industries sourcing domestically. A move away from
rice and wheat to local staples would go along way toward
alleviating the pressure for badly needed foreign exchange.
However, these staples should now benefit from the latest food
processing technology to satisfy much more sophisticated demand.
Q: How should the minister of agriculture set his jobs?
A: The minister of agriculture should immediately put an end to
the lie regarding rice production statistics. He should let us
know what production has been and what the current prospects are.
There is no reason to hesitate at all, the public is demanding
greater transparency in all walks of life. Second, he should
reassign all researchers back to research and hold all senior
officials accountable for their actions.
He should seek out and promote the bright and highly dedicated
officials who have not been able to ingratiate themselves with
their superiors.
Most importantly, he should realign the Ministry of
Agriculture to serve farmers and food producers, helping them
break all constraints, technological and institutional, impinging
upon them.
In other words, he should link up research with extension and
fully utilize agriculture universities to render technological
breakthroughs much more farmer friendly. He should do everything
to encourage competitive food imports and help push for the
conversion of forced sugar cane growing into rice.
It might be worthwhile to begin seriously looking after inland
fisheries and stocking all inland bodies of water. This could
lead to a major leap in the protein intake of rural households.
Finally, it would be very wise for him to push for an early
end to corruption within the ministry and utilize the clean-
government dividends to push for agricultural productivity and
farmer welfare nationwide.
Q: Do the ministers have an adequate chance to carry out their
jobs?
A: They might not be able to accomplish much in the short time
fate allots them. They will have served their country well even
if they just manage to instill the winds of reform into the inner
reaches of the bureaucracy and begin transformation of their
senior officials from masters to servants of the public.