Accelerate Rice And Corn Production, Minister Of Agriculture Asks For Additional Budget Of IDR 5.83 Trillion

Minister of Agriculture Amran Sulaiman (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman asked Commission IV of the DPR RI to approve an Additional Budget (ABT) for Fiscal Year 2023 worth IDR 5.83 trillion. This addition is to accelerate the increase in rice and corn production.

"Regarding the proposal that the ABT for Fiscal Year 2023 amounting to IDR 5.8 trillion will be used to accelerate planting and increase rice and corn production through the provision of seeds, alsintan, fertilizers, and pesticides, optimizing incentive swampland for field officers, and technical guidance," said Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman during a Working Meeting with Commission IV of the DPR RI quoting Antara.

Minister of Agriculture Amran said that the ABT proposal had already been submitted to the Ministry of Finance through the Letter of the Minister of Agriculture Number B-241/RC.110/M/11/2023 on November 6, 2023.

Based on the results of consultations with the Directorate General of Budget of the Ministry of Finance, from the amount of proposals of IDR 5.8 trillion, most likely only part can be done by the end of 2023. To maintain the sustainability of activities in 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture is advised to prioritize the use of the regular budget of the Ministry of Agriculture for the 2024 Fiscal Year.

"Furthermore, the 2024 regular budget shortage can be re-proposed through ABT for Fiscal Year 2024," Amran continued.

Through the Ministry of Agriculture's records, ABT of IDR 5.83 trillion will mostly be used by the Directorate General of Infrastructure and Agricultural Facilities with a total budget of IDR 3.1 trillion. The budget will be used to purchase various post-harvest alsintan, optimize swampland, and purchase fertilizers and pesticides.

Then the largest portion of the budget is owned by the Directorate General of Food Crops. The total budget, which reaches Rp. 2.5 trillion, is planned to be used to buy hybrid corn seeds for 1 million Ha of land, hybrid corn saprodies for 500 thousand Ha of land, the purchase of saprodies to support the acceleration of planting in 500 thousand Ha of land, rice seeds for 150 thousand Ha of land to support the optimization of swampland, to the purchase of 380 post-harvest alsintan units.

Minister of Agriculture Amran said that agriculture is currently facing increasingly complex challenges such as El Nino which has an impact on production decline, geopolitical conflicts that have disrupted food distribution, and export restrictions from food producing countries.

On the other hand, the increasing demand for food after the COVID-19 pandemic has caused food prices to be more expensive which can encourage a global food crisis and can potentially threaten socio-economic and political stability.

As a result of these conditions, he said, Indonesia decided to import 3.5 million tons of rice and the opportunity to reach 5 million tons by 2024. Therefore, Amran assessed that it was necessary to immediately make special efforts to accelerate the increase in food production, especially rice and corn to meet people's food needs.

"National rice production for the 2022-2023 period has decreased due to the threat of El Nino and from the previous 31 million tons and is estimated to decrease to 30 million tons in 2023. Here we force imports of 3.5 million tons of rice for the government's food reserves. This condition is certainly dangerous for our country's food security and security," he said.