Government Efforts To Maintain Food Security: Buy 1.2 Million Tons Of Rice Farmers Via Bulog

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto emphasized that the government is strongly committed to maintaining the availability of affordable food to support national economic stability in the midst of global dynamics.

Most recently, the government is said to have formed a National Food Agency through the issuance of Presidential Regulation Number 66 of 2021.

Airlangga said, this institution is given the authority regarding the management of government food reserves, implementation of supply and price stabilization activities, strengthening food logistics systems, eradicating vulnerable areas prone to food, developing food diversity and developing local food potential.

"To strengthen the Government Rice Reserve (CBP), a policy of purchasing grain or rice from farmers has been issued by Perum Bulog until the stock of CBP reaches 1.2 million tons of rice equivalent," he said in a written statement quoted on Wednesday, September 14.

According to Airlangga, the assignment also expands the capacity of Perum Bulog in absorbing farmers' production in the gadu season for the 2022 period.

"This is also strategic in preventing price fall at the farmer level," he said.

Airlangga added that the government is taking steps to diversify local food by increasing the production of corn, sorghum, sago, and cassava through land expansion and the opening of new areas in order to increase production as an alternative to imported foodstuffs.

Furthermore, he explained that the availability of subsidized fertilizers must be based on reform policies, namely limiting distribution to nine main commodities, namely rice, corn, soybeans, chilies, shallots, garlic, sugar cane, coffee, and cocoa with the types of fertilizer distributed are urea fertilizer and NPK.

"At the same time, the government is developing various food independent center areas based on farmer corporations to increase the efficiency and economic scale of agricultural production through the Food Estate Program in several areas, such as West Java, Central Kalimantan, North Sumatra, East Nusa Tenggara, Central Java, Central Sulawesi, and Papua," he said.

Then for access to capital, People's Business Credit (KUR) is provided which can be reached by agricultural actors with interest which is only 3 percent until the end of 2022.

In addition, the KUR credit ceiling in 2022 was also increased to IDR 373.17 trillion and the Micro KUR ceiling (without additional collateral) which was previously above IDR 10 million to IDR 50 million, increased to above IDR 10 million to IDR 100 million.

"The government has increased the KUR ceiling to IDR 373.17 trillion in 2022 so that local governments or ministries can use it both for the procurement of agricultural needs," concluded Coordinating Minister Airlangga.