Rice Reserves Still Lack, Jokowi Asks To Add 1.5 Million Tons Of Stock Until The End Of The Year

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo admitted that the rice reserves stored by the Logistics Affairs Agency (Bulog) currently have not met the needs of the community until the end of 2023.

Therefore, Jokowi requested an additional rice stock of up to 1.5 million tons by the end of this year. This was revealed by Jokowi after holding a rice harvest in Ciasem Girang Village, Subang Regency, West Java.

"Indeed, it is still lacking. So that from the current stock in Bulog of 1.7 million tons, we are still adding more until the end of the year of approximately 1.5 million," Jokowi was quoted as saying on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube show, Sunday, October 8.

Jokowi admitted that the El Nino phenomenon which had a long dry impact in Indonesia resulted in reduced rice reserves. Thus, the government plans to add 1.5 million tons of rice stocks by the end of 2023.

"The problem (El Nino), therefore why do we add 1.5 million tons of our reserves, because any El Nino has an influence on production, has an influence on the existing harvests," he turur.

Meanwhile, the main harvest that Jokowi participated in in Subang today generated 9 million tons per hectare. Jokowi is happy to see this condition. The reason is, the maximum yield of rice is usually only in the first half of every year.

"Yes, indeed in that one year in the first half, the harvest is usually high because large harvests are usually in March, April which is high. Then in the second semester it fell," said Jokowi.

From the positive impact of harvesting activities in Subang, Jokowi is optimistic that the harvest season in other areas such as Indramayu will also produce quite a lot of rice, so that it can increase rice reserves.

"I am happy to see the results, I think how many tons can this one hectare be, sir? It can be 9 tons. Because I see it is very crowded, and we hope that from these harvests the supply of rice can increase our reserves," explained Jokowi.

With plans to increase rice stocks and quite a lot of big harvests in a number of areas, Jokowi hopes that rice prices can be more controlled when distributed in markets.

"Those who are not happy are the buyers of the rice, which we have to overcome by boosting as much as possible, supplying as much as possible to the market so that prices can fall," said Jokowi.

"Meanwhile, the price in Cipinang has dropped. But we hope that in the market, we also hope that consumers can fall," he continued.