PEOPLE CONCERNED ABOUT INDONESIA'S FOOD RESILIENCE

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 14 (ANTARA) - Food resilience in Indonesia, a country which boasted about its rice self-efficiency at a FAO conference in Rome in 1985, is now being questioned as rising prices and scarcities of a number of strategic food items have become a big issue in this state with a population of about 230 million.

        A legislator has expressed concern about what he said was the country's weakening food resilience due to the shrinking area of agricultural land and increasing urbanization.

        "The country's ability to meet the people's need for agricultural products has dropped and is decreasing significantly. Indonesia is now facing food scarcities not because of the absence of food but because of people's dependence on imports," Dr Bomer Pasaribu of the Golkar Party Faction in the House of Representatives (DPR) told a seminar recently.

        Some economists such as HS Dillon, Rizal Ramli and Hendri Saparini, have also blamed the government for the country's weakening food resilience, saying the government was not serious about developing the agricultural sector, making the country increasingly dependent on imported foodstuffs.

        "The government has devised good programs to develop the country's capability to cultivate food crops such as soybean but it lacked a serious will to implement the programs," Dillon said.

        In order to beef up food stocks at home, the government has to import foodstuffs, such as rice, soybean and vegetables. In 2000, for example, Indonesia had to import 1.2 million tons of soybean worth about US$275 million, vegetables worth US$62 million and fruit valued at US$65 million.

        Pasaribu among others blamed shrinking agricultural land and urbanization for the drop in agricultural production and the weakening of the country's food resilience.

        "The availability of agricultural land is a precondition to the continuing role of the agricultural sector," he said.

        In 1993, the number of farmer families was recorded at 20.3 million and it rose to 25 million in 2003. The increase happened both in and outside Java.

        Meanwhile, the number of small farmer families who owned or rented less than 0.5 hectares of land, increased by 2 percent per annum. In 1993, the number of such small farmer families stood at 10.8 million and in 2003 at 13.7 million.

        "This indicates that the life of farmers in the country is deteriorating because the number of small farmers who own or rent less than 0.5 hectares of land is increasing," Bomer said.

        Besides, the uncontrollable urbanization process also affected agricultural productivity. Urbanization increased from 37.5 percent in 1995 to 40.5 percent in 1998.

        The shrinking area of agricultural land was accompanied by increasing scarcity of jobs in agriculture, and this triggered migration of rural people to urban areas.

        In the meantime, Indonesia's population was predicted to reach 300 million in 2030. "This is creating worries about food scarcities in the future," he added.

        Importing foodstuffs may reduce food scarcities but it will also have an adverse effect on certain segments of society, particularly the farmers. The government's policy of lowering the import duty on rice is a point in case.

        Indonesian farmers will lose up to Rp5.4 trillion in income by the government's decision to lower the import duty on rice by Rp100,- per kg because the measure will depress the price of unhulled rice at farmers' level.

        The government recently reduced the duty on imported rice from Rp550,- to Rp450,- per kg.

        "If national unhulled rice production reached 54 million tons, with rice import duty reduced by Rp100,- per kg, farmers' income from the sale of unhulled rice will be slashed by Rp 5.4 trillion," Rachmad Pambudy, secretary general of the Indonesian Farmers Community Association (HKTI), said.

        The figure (5 million) was arrived at based on the calculation that the production of 1.5 million tons of rice requires 2.5 million tons of unhulled rice supply and a total of 500,000 hectares of paddy fields.

        Amid concern over the foodstuff scarcities in the country, the government has denied that the nation's food resilience is declining, saying that the country has several food crop varieties that provide resilience.

        "Our food resilience is high. We have various food varieties which are carbohydrate sources that can replace rice if the country runs low on the staple," the Ministry of Agriculture's secretary general, Dr Hasanuddin Ibrahim, told a seminar.

        Besides, the government had also projected Indonesia's soybean production at more than 1.3 million tons in 2008 in a bid to reduce dependence on imports.

        Agriculture Minister Anto Apriyantono said the government would have to enhance the country's self-sufficiency in soybean from 2015 to 2011 with a production of one to 1.3 million tons.

        To expedite self-sufficiency in food, he added, the government had allocated Rp1 trillion, which included Rp600 billion for soybean cultivation.

        By increasing food production, the country will be able not only to reduce imports but also achieve its economic growth target.

        "We are optimistic that Indonesia will achieve its economic growth target if the government focuses on increasing food production to reduce dependence on imports," Maryadi Laksmono of Bank Niaga said. (T.A014/A/HAJM/18:35/A014) (T.A014/A/A014/A/E002) 14-02-2008 20:29:02