Starting Next Week, Rice Food Aid Will Be Distributed To 21.35 Million Beneficiary Families

Rice Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

The government through Perum Bulog will immediately distribute the second phase of rice food assistance starting next week. This assistance will be given to 21.353 million Beneficiary Families (KPM) for the next three months.

Head of the National Food Agency (NFA) Arief Prasetyo Adi said this food aid is one of the efforts to control food inflation.

"Starting next Monday (11 September) Bulog will distribute rice food assistance to 21.353 million KPM for the next three months. This is an intervention step that the government needs to take so that rice prices can stabilize again," he said in an official statement, Friday, September 8.

"In addition, as directed by President Joko Widodo, this rice food assistance is also to help control inflation in the regions," he continued.

Furthermore, Arief emphasized that in the distribution process, there needs to be regularity and minimize errors in the field.

"Data on recipients of rice food assistance so that it is actually cross-checked, so that it can be right on target," he said.

Especially for distribution to 3TP areas (Disadvantaged, Outermost, Frontier and Border), continued Arief, delivery effectiveness is needed. For example, by directly sending at once for aid packages for two or three months.

"This is solely for accelerating shipments so that they can be delivered quickly," said Arief.

Arief assessed that with the assistance of rice food disbursed to the public like this, it should be able to reduce prices in the market. Moreover, this is carried out for three months and it is equivalent to around 7 to 8 percent.

"We will continue to try to reduce rice prices in the market so that people don't need to worry and panic buying," he explained.

As is known, the first phase of rice food assistance has been completed from April to July 2023. With a target target of 21.353 million KPM in 38 provinces with a total rice amount of 640,000 tons, it has been realized collaboratively.

This success is the fruit of the synergy and collaboration of all related parties, both elements of ministries/agencies, SOEs, Provincial and Regency/City Governments, community institutions, and the National Police Food Task Force.

In the expansion statistics released by the Central Statistics Agency on September 1, 2023, it was recorded that in February 2023 the level of rice inflation (month to month) was 2.63 percent. Then it decreased to 0.03 percent in July, but again increased to 1.43 percent in August 2023.

In this regard, the contribution of rice inflation (month to month) of 0.08 percent in February also fell and grew again in August to reach 0.05 percent. The rice food assistance is considered to be able to reduce the rate of increase in rice prices from April to July 2023 so that it has an impact on maintaining the inflation rate in general.

Previously, in the 2023 Inflation Control Coordination Meeting at the State Palace, Jakarta, Thursday, August 31, President Jokowi instructed his staff to immediately distribute the second phase of rice food assistance. Where one beneficiary family gets 10 kg of rice.