Farmers Propose to Establish National Food Agency
13 October 2015 14:30 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-The association of rice farmers in an organization called Gerbang Tani have proposed to form a national food agency, following the government’s plan to import rice due to inaccuracy in domestic rice production data.
Gerbang Tani chairman Idham Arsyad on Tuesday, October 13, said “We propose this agency to be under the president. This authority will have full authority over national food policy.”
According to Idham, the farmers are worried about the plan to import rice, as seen in Vice President Jusuf Kalla’s statement that importing rice is needed. “With this food agency, Vice President will not decide whether to import rice or not,” he said.
Reuters news agency previously reported that Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade had won a contract to supply one million tons of rice to Indonesia. The contract is worth US$359 per ton or equal to Rp4.8 trillion in total.
The news surfaced after the government planned to import rice to anticipate shortage at the end of the year. Idham said this plan is contradictory to the government’s target to achieve food sovereignty.
The Central Statistics Agency previously stated that Indonesia would experience rice surplus of 10.5 million tons this year. However, the price of rice keeps increasing above Rp10.500 per kilogram for the premium quality, while Bulog’s rice stock is only 1.8 million tons.
AYU PRIMA SANDI