Badanas Admits The Distribution Of Food Aid To The Outermost Regions Is Quite Challenging

Bulog rice, one of the staples distributed to the outermost regions of Indonesia by Badanas. (Between/Reno Esnir/aww)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Food Agency (NFA) Arief Prasetyo Adi admitted that the distribution of food aid to the outermost areas was indeed more challenging. This is because of his geographical condition.

"We encourage distribution to accelerate in all regions. We also ask the NFA Team to consistently monitor distribution, especially in the outermost regions, considering that this program is very strategic to maintain people's purchasing power and control inflation according to the direction of the President," he said, Thursday, May 18.

Even so, Arief admitted that this had been previously mitigated by the National Food Agency, Bulog, and logistics operators of PT Pos Indonesia (Persero) and two other partners.

Arief explained that the distribution of rice food assistance for 21.3 million Beneficiary Families (KPM) in 38 Provinces carried out by Perum Bulog is still ongoing and has entered the 2nd phase of distribution.

Furthermore, Arief also ensured that the distribution of aid was carried out evenly, including to areas close to Indonesia's outermost borders.

For a number of provinces located near Indonesia's outermost borders such as Aceh, Riau Islands, North Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), Maluku, West Papua, Southwest Papua, and South Papua, the distribution of the first phase has been completed 100 percent. This means that all KPMs spread across various districts/cities in the province have received the first 10 kg of rice assistance," he said.

In fact, said Arief, several other provinces in Eastern Indonesia immediately followed, such as North Maluku in the distribution of the first phase, which was realized 95 percent, Papua Mountains has realized 79 percent, Central Papua has realized 76 percent, and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) has realized 42 percent.

"We distribute rice food aid evenly according to the KPM quota based on data by name by address from the Ministry of Social Affairs. We do not differentiate, all provinces are priorities, even if there are faster ones or there are still processes that are influenced by the condition of rice stocks in the Regional Office of Bulog for each region," he explained.

Meanwhile, NFA Food Distribution and Reserve Director Rahmi Widiriani said the distribution of rice aid in the village located on the island as long as the NTT was running smoothly.

"We have checked directly, in the first stage, a total of 780 kg of Government Rice Reserves (CBP) managed by BULOG were distributed to 78 Beneficiary Families (KPM) in the village," he said.

For the smooth distribution of aid in difficult areas in the range, Rahmi emphasized the importance of the role of Village Heads and Village Apparatus in the process of distributing rice, ranging from data collection and information to KPM, to supporting the process of handing over aid to KPM, so that the benefits of this program are truly felt.

Head of the Division of Operational Planning and Public Service BULOG Epi Sulandari asked the public not to worry, considering that Bulog and PT Pos Indonesia are committed to delivering rice with the best quality to the community even though to areas with quite difficult access, such as the island while.

"If there is damaged or poor quality rice due to rain or sea water, please report it to BULOG and PT Pos through the village head," said Epi.

For information, for rice price conditions in NTT, based on the NFA Food Price Panel as of May 16, 2023, the price at the consumer level for premium rice is Rp. 14,110 per kg and medium rice is Rp. 12,230 per kg.

Based on these conditions, the price of premium rice in NTT is still below the Highest Retail Price (HET) in zone 2, which is Rp. 14,400 per kg. Meanwhile, for medium rice the price is still 6.3 percent above the HET zone 2 which is Rp. 11,500 per kg.