INDONESIA BOOSTING ITS FOOD CROP DEVELOPMENT

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, March 8 (Antara) - Indonesia is giving a priority to agriculture development, particularly the food crop sector, in efforts to improve the welfare of farmers, meet domestic needs, remove dependence on imports, and compete in ASEAN Economic Community.          To achieve the goals, the government this year has set a fund of Rp22 trillion in its state budget to finance its agriculture development such as improving the irrigation system and providing farmers with agricultural tools.          Farmers will be assisted with various production facilities such as hand tractors and harvesting machines to increase the productivity their rice fields from the current approximate 5 tons per hectare to hopefully about 9 to 10 tons.          The government will also re-frame the cycles of country's crop planting and harvest seasons to avoid simultaneous and overlapping harvest times. Thus, food crop prices for farmers could consistently be maintained at favorable levels.            As Indonesia has a dry season, irrigation is vital for its rice fields. The Ministry of Agriculture will improve the country's rice irrigation system by repairing damaged ones.          Almost 50 percent of the country's irrigation systems which channel water supplies to some 4.4 million hectares of rice fields are damaged.          According to Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman, his ministry will prioritize the repair of damaged irrigation channels to provide water to three million hectares of rice.          "We are targeting to accomplish the repair of irrigation channels to be used for paddy cultivation in fields of 1.5 million hectares," Amran said.          He said that the government has allocated Rp22 trillion from the state budget for agricultural development to achieve food self-reliance and to free the country from depending on rice imports.          "The funds will be used to develop the agricultural sector to advance the nation's food sector. Our generation should not continue to depend on imports, which will eventually leave us suffering. Indonesia is an independent and sovereign country. So it should also be sovereign with regard to food," Minister Amran Sulaiman stated in Pekanbaru, Riau, on Wednesday.          The Indonesian government under President Joko Widodo has vowed to meet it targets for food self-sufficiency by improving the infrastructure of the food sector.          "Within three years we must be self-sufficient in food and stop imports," Jokowi, as the president is popularly called, said after participating in a rice harvest in Barang Palier in the district of Pinrang, South Sulawesi, last November.          Thus, according Minister Sulaiman, with a fund amounting to Rp22 trillion, the Ministry of Agriculture is committed to meeting the needs of farmers in order to encourage them in increasing productivity.          In the past four months of Jokowi's government, the agriculture minister has taken a number of strategic steps to assist farmers, including the handing over of 10 thousand hand tractors to farmers.          The government is committed to providing as many as 41,000 hand tractors to farmers across the country, besides other harvesting tools.          "This is the first assistance of its kind since the country gained its independence," the minister pointed out.          The other policy implemented is the banning of rice imports. He observed that if farmers are serious about developing their rice fields, the rice production will be adequate to meet the need at home.          Sulaiman further noted that if imported rice flooded Indonesia, farmers at home will go bankrupt. In the interest of the farmers, the ministry also cut several operational costs, such as those incurred over hotels, official trips, office operations and other ceremonial costs, to use the money on farmers.          "Here is where the difference lies between the Ministry of Agriculture now and that of the past. The ministry will now strive to meet what farmers need, not what is being programmed by the government," he boasted.          By encouraging and providing them with the production tools, farmers are expected to increase their productivity.          According to President Jokowi, with high productivity, the rice stocks will always be adequate and the country will not need to import the commodity.          "We should strive to increase productivity. For example, one hectare rice field now produces 5 tons of rice. We should find ways to increase the output to 9 to 10 tons, as shown in Demak district. As for the price, it will compete with that of other countries. If rice abroad is cheap, our rice should also be cheap. The key point in this case is increased productivity," Jokowi explained.         The president said that in order to avoid stocking excessive amounts of rice during simultaneous harvest, the government will design a cycle for rice planting and harvesting.         "Arranged cycles of planting and harvesting will also increase farmers' yield of unhusked rice. If the cycles are not designed, the price will drop when rice is harvested simultaneously and stocks will pile up. So we will frame a cycle for rice planting and harvesting," the president stated while observing a maize plantation in Suku village, Ponorogo District, East Java on Friday.          Yet, production will continue to be increased. He urged farmers to boost the yield of rice to maintain the availability of food stocks.           "I asked all farmers to be more confident in producing rice and informed them that the government will not import the commodity anymore. So production should rise," Jokowi said.           He reminded that the competition now was between farmers at home and those abroad, and that the quality and availability of stocks was the key to a nation becoming food self-sufficient.          After all, quality will become the factor in the face of the ASEAN Economic Community which will be implemented next year.          Thus, in the face of the AEC, Indonesia has to prepare its upstream and down stream industries.          "If we are not prepared now, then Indonesia's food industry will not be able to compete in the AEC era," the minister emphasized.          He stated that while preparing the agricultural sector, priority should be given to the food crop sector by improving infrastructure such as irrigation and other production facilities.          Besides improving the irrigation systems, which can provide water to 3 million hectares of rice fields, the Ministry of Agriculture should develop the agricultural downstream industries, industries on other food crops.          "The sugar industry will be developed with the construction of 10 sugar mills. The government will also develop other downstream processing industries for agricultural products such as coffee, cacao, and others, to face the AEC" the minister remarked.          According to Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Indonesia should not be scared of the upcoming implementation of the AEC.          "Many people are worried and scared of facing competition in the regional market," Kalla noted.      In fact, Kalla is of the viewpoint that Indonesia will reap numerous benefits from the implementation of the ASEAN free trade.          "The implementation of the AEC, effectively starting early 2016, could have negative and positive impacts. The trade opportunities will be wide open, but, on the other hand, we need cooperation to face the competition," he stated.          Economically however, Indonesia is a middle-class nation and placed above Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines but below Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, Kalla said.***3*** (T.A014/f001)