Government Food Reserves Key To National Food Security
Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi said government food reserves (CPP) are one of the keys to domestic food security.
Arief's statement was in response to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) who warned that extreme climate change would have a negative impact on domestic food security.
"One of the keys besides production is CPP," he said when met in Jakarta, Sunday, July 28.
Therefore, Arief admitted that his party continues to make various efforts to secure and strengthen government food reserves. This is in accordance with the mandate of Presidential Decree No. 125 of 2022 concerning the Implementation of Government Food Reserves.
There are 12 food commodities set out in the CPP, namely rice, corn, soybeans, shallots, garlic, chilies, beef, buffalo meat, chicken meat, fish, eggs, sugar, and cooking oil.
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Meanwhile, continued Arief, the Food SOEs, namely Perum Bulog and RNI or ID FOOD, have the task of supporting the achievement of the 12 food commodities included in the CPP.
"In Presidential Decree No. 125 of 2022, rice, corn, soybeans have been regulated, we give them to Bulog. The rest are 6 of the RNI or ID FOOD and their companies," he explained.
Arief said to increase CPP, the Ministry of Finance has provided loan funds of IDR 28.7 trillion for food SOEs, in this case Perum Bulog and ID FOOD.
"Of course we thank the Minister of Finance and his staff for providing guarantees of around Rp. 28.7 trillion. This is part of RP. 5 trillion in RNI or ID FOOD, the remaining Rp. 23 trillion is in Bulog," he explained.
Currently, continued Arief, the government's rice reserve stock in Bulog's warehouse is stable at 1 million tons, even though the government has implemented rice food assistance for one month of around 220,000 tons to 240,000 tons.
Arief said to secure the government's rice stock, Badanas had also assigned Bulog to absorb at least 600,000 tons of unhulled rice from farmers by the end of 2024.
"I have just re-assigned Bulog to absorb 600,000 tons of domestically to increase government food reserves for commercial and CBP so that when we change it next year we still have stock above 2 million tons," he said.