Minister Of Agriculture Says Potential Rice Imports Will Reach 5 Million Tons By 2024, This Is The Cause

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman said Indonesia has the potential to import rice up to 5 million tons by 2024. This is due to increasingly complex agricultural challenges and the potential for a world food crisis.

The increasing demand for food after the COVID-19 pandemic has made food prices even more expensive which can encourage global food emergencys and can potentially threaten Indonesia's socio-economic and political stability. This year, Indonesia decided to import 3.5 million tons of rice and has the opportunity to reach 5 million in 2024," he said, quoting Antara.

The Indonesian government initially only imported 2 million tons whose importation process had started in early 2023. However, in order to maintain price stabilization and rice supply towards the end of 2023 and the election democracy party which will occur in February 2024, the government has again decided to import another 1.5 million tons of rice so that total rice imports in 2023 reach 3.5 million tons.

In addition to export restrictions from food producing countries, El Nino, which has an impact on reducing rice production from last year's 31 million tons and to 30 million tons this year, is the government's reason to add import quotas again.

"For this reason, it is necessary to immediately make special efforts to accelerate the increase in food production to meet the food needs of the community," said Amran.

To accelerate the increase in food production, especially rice and corn, Minister Amran also proposed an Additional Budget (ABT) for the 2023 Fiscal Year worth IDR 5.83 trillion.

"Regarding the proposal of ABT for Fiscal Year 2023, IDR 5.8 trillion will be used to accelerate planting and increase rice and corn production through the provision of seeds, fertilizer and pesticide alsintan, optimizing incentive swampland for field officers and technical guidance," he explained.

Through refocusing the 2023 budget, ABT and the food production acceleration program, the Ministry predicts rice production in 2024 could reach 32 million tons and become 34 million tons by 2025.

The realization of the Ministry of Agriculture's budget as of November 10 was recorded to have only reached Rp9.66 trillion or 65.18 percent of the budget ceiling of Rp14.28 trillion. If taking into account the outstanding contract realization has reached 75.48 percent

"During the remaining 2 months, we will accelerate the implementation of the activity program and the realization of budget absorption significantly," said Amran.