Rice production to grow by 6% next year: Official

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia, hard hit by this year's protracted drought, will boost rice production by six percent next year by improving productivity, a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture says.

"Our objective in the 1994-95 farming season is to prepare the foundation so that rice production can increase by six percent next year," Director General of Food Crop and Horticulture Amrin Kahar said Thursday.

The 1994-95 planting season covers the October-March period.

The government has announced that this year's prolonged drought will cause a drop in the country's rice production by around four percent to 27.7 million tons of husked rice, which is slightly above the country's total consumption of around 26.7 million tons.

A six percent increase, therefore, should lead to rice production of 29.36 million tons of husked rice.

About 90 percent of Indonesia's population, the world's fourth largest, consume rice as their main staple. Indonesia became self-sufficient in rice in 1984 after being the world's largest rice importer for decades.

Kahar said that to meet the six percent increase, the government will promote the use of urea tablets in 1.3 million hectares of rice fields in 25 regencies in Java. The fields cover about 40 percent of the island's entire rice fields.

"We plan that all rice farmers living in those areas must now use urea tablets as their main fertilizer," he said.

The implementation of the campaign will be carried out mostly by regional authorities under the supervision of the agricultural ministry, he added.

The government recently decided to maintain the subsidy for urea fertilizers, leaving their price fixed at Rp 260 (about 11 U.S. cents) per kilogram for the powder form and Rp 295 per kilogram for the urea tablets.

Kahar also pointed out that using urea tablets should increase rice production by, at least, 500 tons per hectare.

Supply

Kahar explained that the government will ensure good coordination among the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Finance, fertilizer producers, provincial administrations and cooperatives to guarantee adequate supplies of urea tablets.

He also said that the government will provide special credit facilities to help farmers partially finance purchases of urea tablets, which will be sold at village cooperatives.

Indonesia's urea plants, all of which are state-owned, currently have a total production capacity of 6.22 million tons. PT Pupuk Sriwijaya, the biggest producer, has a capacity of 2.28 million tons.

Kahar said the use of urea tablets will increase farmers's income by 7.77 percent and raise the index of their real income to 104.67 from 99.3 at present.

This is possible, Kahar said, because the government recently raised the floor price of unhusked rice paid by the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) to village cooperatives by 11.11 percent to Rp 400 per kilogram, and husked rice by 11 percent to Rp 657 beginning Jan. 1, 1995.

Succeed

Meanwhile, on a separate occasion, agricultural expert Soedodo Hardjoamidjojo, who was recently awarded a professor's position at the Institute of Agriculture of Bogor in West Java, said yesterday that the government's ambition to boost rice production through intensification is "likely to succeed."

"Taking all factors into consideration, it is quite likely that they will succeed in achieving the six percent increase in rice production next year through the urea tablet campaign," Soedodo told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.

He warned, however, that all intensification means will no longer be a viable option once the government needs to boost the national average rice productivity to more than five tons per hectare.

Government figures show that Indonesia's rice productivity is about 4.5 tons per hectare at present. (hdj)