Rice And Sugar Prices Soar, Government Asked To Prepare Infrastructure To Overcome Food Crisis

Photo by Faran Raufi on Unsplash

JAKARTA - DPR Speaker Puan Maharani encourages the Government to prepare long-term solutions in the form of food infrastructure, in order to anticipate the possibility of a crisis due to the impact of climate change. Moreover, now the threat of a food crisis has begun to be felt, as evidenced by soaring commodity prices such as rice and sugar.

According to Puan, the solution to import food commodities such as rice and sugar is a short-term solution to maintain food security.

"Food crisis is an issue that requires long-term strategies, such as preparing good food infrastructure. As well as achieving targets for a certain period of time to reduce dependence on imported food," said Puan, Tuesday, October 17.

The first woman to serve as Chair of the Indonesian House of Representatives highlighted the statement by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which predicts that the world will experience a threat of a food crisis in 2050 due to climate change. Puan said climate change is very worrying and causes various sectors to be threatened, including the agricultural sector.

"In terms of food management, the current government still adheres to the Food Security mission. We should have referred to Food Sovereignty to protect the food sector in the future," he said.

"Food sovereignty is needed so that the people can be independent in producing food and can establish their own agricultural, livestock and fishery systems," added Puan.

To create Food Sovereignty, Puan assessed that innovation and breakthrough from the Government were needed, such as the use of biodiversity, increasing agricultural cultivation, and consistency in the implementation of productive agricultural land protection.

"The government can through BRIN (National Research and Innovation Agency), develop research on superior seeds and seeds in agriculture, plantations, livestock and fisheries," explained the former Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture.

Furthermore, Puan said the threat of a food crisis had spread throughout the world, including Indonesia. This is marked by a surge in food prices such as rice and sugar which is currently happening.

"Food systems that have not really been effective cause agrarian conflicts, poverty, hunger, stunting, obesity, climate change, and natural damage," said Puan.

Based on records from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the average price of all types of rice in the first week of October 2023 reached IDR 13,674 per kilogram (kg). This price is up more than IDR 1,500 per kg compared to the first week of September 2023 which is still below IDR 11,900 per kg.

The monthly rice inflation in September 2023 reached 5.61%, as well as the highest in the last five years. In fact, the price of medium quality rice this year experienced an unusual increase, reaching IDR 12,685 per kilogram, an increase of 29.6% throughout 2023.

In addition, through price monitoring on the Market Monitoring and Basic Needs System (SP2KP), there are 338 cities and districts in Indonesia that experienced a surge in the Sugar Price Development Index (IPH).

Reflecting on this, Puan reminded the Government to pay attention to what caused the soaring rice price. He considered that one of them was due to the problem of massive conversion of rice fields.

"The lack of food production caused by the land crisis is also added to the phenomenon of prolonged drought, causing food production such as rice to also experience a drastic decline," he said.

Regarding the soaring price of rice and sugar, Puan encouraged the local government to increase the operation of the cheap market. He assessed that market operations could overcome market turmoil due to the food crisis following the El Nino phenomenon.

"El Nino's natural phenomenon is threatening and we don't know when it will be completed, the impact is of course on the production of basic necessities, especially the production of rice food which ultimately has an impact on rising prices," said Puan.

"Therefore, there must be intervention. Including the local government also needs to play a role in overcoming the possibility of a food crisis by holding low-cost market operations. If it can be done regularly, this will certainly have a positive impact on the community," he concluded.