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.