Ensure Chili Supply Ahead Of Eid Al-Fitr, Director General Of Horticulture: Enough Availability, No Imports

Director General of Horticulture, Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Indonesia, Prihasto Setyanto. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Director General of Horticulture of the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) Prihasto Setyanto guarantees that there will be enough chili before Eid Hajj or Eid al-Adha 1443 Hijriah. He conveyed this after the chili harvest at the chili-producing center in Kataan Village, Ngadirejo District, Temanggung Regency, Central Java.

"In principle, chili is enough to deal with Lebaran Hajj, although the price is a bit high because some chili centers have experienced a decline in production due to many diseases," said Prihasto, quoted by Antara, Sunday, June 26.

Prihasto said that if you look at Ngadirejo District, there are around 500 hectares of chili plants that are currently ready to harvest so that they can meet the chili needs not only for Central Java Province, but also as far as Jakarta.

"According to the direction of the Minister of Agriculture, we want to make sure that the chili conditions ahead of Eid al-Adha are sufficient, although the price is a bit high because there are some areas that used to plant chilies are now starting to plant due to the weather anomaly situation," he said.

Based on the results of the Ministry of Agriculture's identification, the decline itself was largely influenced by the factor of farmers changing their crop direction from chili to rice farming, because in the May-June period, rainfall in many areas was still quite high and there were many diseases that attacked chili plants.

He conveyed that the current weather anomaly must be addressed by choosing the appropriate chili plant varieties.

"This is also a lesson for all parties, especially chili farmers, to be smart in choosing varieties, if the rainfall is high like now, they must choose varieties that match the existing rainfall so that there will be no crop failure," he said.

The Director General of Horticulture ensures that there will be no imports of fresh chilies, so that it will not damage the market price of chili in the country. Nearly 80 percent of Indonesian people consume fresh chilies, they are not used to consuming dry chilies.

The price fluctuations of chili are sometimes high, but sometimes low, according to him, this is indeed a learning process in the future so that farmers can not only plant but also process chilies into other useful derivative products.

"The availability of various chili peppers (red, green, curly and large chilies) from June to July 2022 is still in surplus to meet national needs," he said.

During the working visit to Temanggung Regency, the Director General of Horticulture Prihasto Setyanto also inaugurated the Horticulture Postharvest Ward belonging to the Young Prosperous Farmers Group in Kataan Village, Ngadirejo District and monitoring harvests and chili auction embryo activities in Pasuruan Village, Bulu District.