RI needs food security policy, experts say

RI needs food security policy, experts say

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After years of increasing rice imports, Indonesia should now
think of adopting a comprehensive policy so as to ensure food
security and avoid a food crisis in the future, experts said on
Wednesday.

H.S. Dillon of the Center For Agricultural Policy Studies and
Siswono Yudhohusodo of The Indonesian Farmers Union (HKTI) said
separately that the government must now embark on a concerted
effort to draft a policy for the attainment of self-sufficiency
in rice, the country's main staple food.

The policy, Dillon said, had to include the availability of
paddy fields, fertilizer, good seeds, improved agricultural
machinery, and reduced transportation costs.

"Without such a policy, we won't be able to achieve rice self-
sufficiency," Dillon said, adding that raising the import duty on
rice would not resolve the farmers' problems.

Rice makes up a major part of the diet for most Indonesians,
with Java being the main producer.

Separately, Siswono said Indonesia could not afford the
consequences of rice scarcity and, therefore, it should now move
on to turn around the decline in domestic rice output and
increasing rice imports.

"We can't just watch domestic rice production failing to meet
demand every year, thus increasing imports. We must take positive
measures to stop this trend and achieve self-sufficiency in
rice," Siswono told The Jakarta Post.

Indonesia achieved self-sufficiency in rice production in 1984
but, since then, growth in rice output has been unable to meet
the growth in rice demand due to a rising population.

Analysts have said the failure to maintain self-sufficiency in
rice was due to, among other things, the massive conversion of
rice land to residential, development and industrial uses.

Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics shows that the
country's rice fields have shrunk to some 14 million hectares now
from 16.7 million hectares in 1983, a reduction of 15,000
hectares per annum.

In addition, the reduction in the level of subsidies for
fertilizers and pesticides as well as the reduction in import
duty on rice have also contributed to the failure to maintain
self-sufficiency.

Consequently, Indonesia has to import rice to meet the
continually increasing domestic demand.

Rice imports have increased drastically from only 464,449 tons
in 1989 to 5.8 million tons in 1998, making Indonesia one of the
world's largest rice importers.

This year, a number of analysts have predicted that the
country will import some 2.5 million tons of rice. But some
officials have downplayed the figure, saying rice imports should
stay at 1.3 million tons this year.

One of the ways to increase domestic rice output would be
through the opening up of new rice fields, said Siswono.

Therefore, he suggested that the government speed up its plan
to open 100,000 hectares of new paddy fields every year.

"The government must encourage oil-rich provinces such as
Riau, South Sumatra and East Kalimantan to earmark some of their
revenues from oil and gas for the opening of new paddy fields,"
he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture has proposed that the government
open 100,000 hectares of new paddy fields per year to avoid rice
shortages by the end of the decade, but the plan has not been
endorsed by the Cabinet.

The ministry has also proposed that the government raise the
import duties on basic foodstuffs, including rice, to encourage
farmers to plant more crops.

Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragih was quoted by Kompas
as saying that President Megawati Soekarnoputri had agreed to the
proposal.

Bungaran contended that the measure was necessary because
developed countries, such as the European nations and the U.S, as
well as rice producing countries like Thailand and India, were
imposing higher import duties on rice than the duty imposed by
Indonesia.

At present, the country's import duty on rice stood at 30
percent, or Rp 430 per kilogram.