Bapanas Ensures Food Supply is Safe to Face the Dry Season

JAKARTA - The Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) and Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman ensures that food reserves other than rice are in a ready state, through strengthening the strategic staple food stocks, to meet the needs of the community in facing the dry season.

"We have indeed prepared (food availability) long before facing El Nino. In the past, our experience in 2023, thank God we passed," said Amran in a statement received by Antara, in Jakarta, Saturday, July 11.

In the Bapanas report, the Government's food reserve stock in the form of Perum Bulog rice was 5.2 million tons as of July 8.

Meanwhile, the provincial-level regional government food reserves were recorded at a total of 7,340 tons until the end of June and at the district/city level there were a total of 13,150 tons spread across 323 areas.

Then, the food reserves in the form of feed corn as of July 8 are still 188 thousand tons and are distributed to poultry farmers through the Food Supply and Price Stabilization (SPHP) program at a more economical price.

Food reserves in the form of cooking oil are recorded at 1.1 thousand kiloliters, while consumption is around 2.79 thousand tons, both of which are at Bulog and ID Food. In addition, food reserves in the form of chicken meat are still 38 tons at ID Food.

Regarding perishable commodities such as chili, red onions, and chicken eggs; Bapanas is optimistic that it can be supported by regular domestic food production because there is a surplus of production compared to the high consumption needs throughout the year.

The Food Balance Sheet Projection processed by Bapanas, for large chili has an estimated production this year in the figure of 1.51 million tons with a consumption requirement of 929,27 thousand tons. For sweet peas, production can reach 1.5 million tons with a consumption requirement of 913,61 thousand tons.

In a year, the production of red onions reached 1.32 million tons with an annual consumption of 1.25 million tons; the production of flavored chicken eggs was at 6.98 million tons with a consumption of 6.47 million tons; and 4.89 million tons of broiler meat with a consumption of 4.02 million tons.

"If August to September is the dry season. June is the beginning of the dry season. Then in July and August, God willing, our food is safe, especially rice," explained Amran.

Rice self-sufficiency is a priority because rice is the main food commodity with the largest consumption share in the daily lives of Indonesian people. Therefore, the success of achieving rice self-sufficiency is a benchmark for national food security.

"Swasembada means that when a country imports a maximum of 10 percent of its needs. Our country does not import medium rice, which means it has been perfectly self-sufficient," he said.

The Chief Secretary of Bapanas, Sarwo Edhy, ensured that the Government had simultaneously prepared various mitigation steps, especially to build a solid food reserve stock.

"We remain vigilant in facing El Nino, a solid food reserve, increasing production, increasingly strong distribution, and collaboration with all stakeholders," said Sarwo.

One of the tangible evidences of this readiness is having a government rice reserve managed by Bulog reaching 5.2 million tons.

"There is also a stock of food reserves with commodities other than rice," said Sarwo.