Minister Of Agriculture Syahrul EMPHASIZED That Rice Imports Were Not Due To Low Agricultural Productivity

Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Syahrul Yasin Limpo. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo emphasized that the government imported rice not because of low agricultural productivity.

"In the past three years, our food readiness has been extraordinary. Even yesterday we did not import rice for three years and if there was rice import it was not due to low productivity," he said at the Training of Trainer Low Cost Precision Farming, in South Lampung, quoted from Antara, Sunday, February 12.

However, he continued, in the problem of rice imports, there are three parameters used, first using data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) to measure it.

According to the Minister of Agriculture, BPS data shows that 2022 rice production has increased by 0.30 million tons. Where in 2021 rice production will be 31.36 million tons and in 2022 it will be 31.66 million tons.

The increase in rice production was also influenced by the area of harvested land which also increased by 0.13 percent from the previous 10.41 million hectares of rice to 10.54 million hectares of rice fields which generated 54.95 million tons of unhulled rice.

"Meanwhile, the rice eaten by the Indonesian population is at 29 to 30 million tons," he said.

He also emphasized that the data from BPS has been compared to the Ministry of Agriculture's standing crop (SISCRop) and reports from regions that are always validated at all times.

"This is a very concrete comparison. After the comparison went down, I saw it with a standing crop, according to what said the standing crop there was 42 hectares, it turned out that 42 hectares of land were ready to harvest in the field," he said.

Regarding rice stocks, the Minister of Agriculture said that the availability was sufficient and would increase with the harvest of 1.9 million hectares of rice in Indonesia this month.

"This month we are starting to harvest, our monitoring will have 1.9 million hectares throughout Indonesia, which is equivalent to 6-7 million tons of rice," he said.

However, the Minister of Agriculture was reluctant to answer the issue of rice prices that rose from medium to premium today.

"The Ministry of Agriculture's job is only availability. Maybe imports just in case, but don't say it's related to productivity," he said again.