A porter carries a sack of rice at the Cipinang Central Rice Market in East Jakarta on Sunday (23/7). The government has long tried to cut the rice distribution chain to reduce prices at the consumer level.
The government is investigating PT IBU on suspicion that it manipulated the prices and exaggerated the nutrient content of rice.
We appreciate the government\'s efforts to manage rice supplies and prices at the producer and consumer levels. Rice is one of the government\'s concerns. During the New Order era, one of the three demands that students made was to lower the price of rice. In the 1997-1998 period, the economic crisis was accompanied by high rice prices as a result of a sharp decline in production after a long dry season caused by El Nino in December 1996 to June 1997.
It is not surprising if the government is working hard to increase production and distribute rice.
Producing rice in the 1970-1990s was relatively easy. The population was still low and there was plenty of productive land for planting rice. In the late 1960s, the Green Revolution took place. The International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, the Philippines, through international cooperation, produced IR superior rice seeds.
IR8 yields were much higher and grew faster than local varieties. The government facilitated farmers with farming credit, subsidized production facilities and irrigation. In 1984, from the largest importing country, Indonesia became self-sufficient in rice and in 1985 was awarded by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
The situation is now very different. The population continues to increase, agricultural land continues to be encroached upon, climate change occurs and since the Green Revolution there has been no new technology that increases rice yields. All of that require innovation in production management and food security.
After the regime change in 1998, the intervention of the International Monetary Fund severed Bulog\'s monopoly as a strategic food buffer. Large-scale private investment in the rice industry, one of which is milling, was allowed, and even permitted companies that had global investors.
We support the government\'s efforts to increase food production and maintain stability while at the same time remaining within the framework of food security and environmental conservation, including managing the risk of pest attacks and disease due to intensive planting patterns with similar varieties.
No good results come in an instant. The issue of PT IBU constitutes an opportunity to rearrange the rice agro-industry. The government should involve all parties, especially farmers, and learn from neighboring countries a way of production that is efficient and with better outcomes. Technology, including for production and distribution management, is constantly being updated. Subsidies can be continued as long as the target is appropriate.
Policies and regulations need to be clear from the beginning. Grey and changing regulations confuse agencies and can be exploited by business actors. In essence, there must be strategies, direction and objectives and implementation that are clear to build agriculture and food in an increasingly complex situation.
