Food Agency Predicts Harvest Season Will Resign 2 Months To 2024

Head of the National Food Agency, Arief Prasetyo Adi (photo: dock, special)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Food Agency, Arief Prasetyo Adi, predicts that the rice harvest period will be delayed by two months to around May-June 2024. The postponement of this harvest period is due to the rice planting period which is also delayed.

Arief explained that the planting season was delayed due to the El Nino phenomenon which made the rainy season only occur in November. Currently, his party is preparing for the first planting season, which is two months later than it should have been in September 2023.

"So the harvest is slightly delayed by two months. That means around May, April, May, June. Hopefully the results are good. One of the keys is fertilizer, yes we are grateful," he told reporters in Cikampek, West Java, Saturday, November 11.

Arief said that his party will be tasked with preparing brigade stocks until the harvest season occurs in May-June 2024. Therefore, Arief hopes that PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) will support this task by securing fertilizer stocks during the planting period.

"Our job is if the national food agency prepares the bridging stock until the harvest," he said.

Arief said 70 percent of the rice harvest occurred in the first semester, while in the second semester only the harvest was left. Therefore, he hopes that this I planting period will be successful. That way, Indonesia does not need additional rice from abroad.

The first semester must be successful, the seeds, the seeds, the water. We pray that hopefully, the economy should not be fostered to Vietnam, the economy should not be moved to Thailand, the economy is in Indonesia, and Indonesia produces far from all of them, you know and the gap between consumption and production needs that we have to improve," he said.