Minister Of SOEs: Food Security Becomes A Joint Struggle

SOE Minister Erick Thohir. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir said the current global situation was not profitable.

According to him, food security should be a common concern and be prepared seriously.

In addition, according to Erick, Indonesia also needs to mitigate the El Nino phenomenon which may be longer than previously estimated.

The reason is, a drought that takes too long will cause the threat of food scarcity in Indonesia.

"In the midst of the joint struggle to secure food security, the government continues to strive to secure the Government Rice Reserve (CBP) managed by Bulog," he said in an official statement, Wednesday, March 20.

Erick guarantees that the CBP allocation for 10 kilograms (kg) of rice food assistance for 22 million beneficiary families (KPM) is sufficient.

"A safe CBP will guarantee the running of the Rice Food Assistance Program," he said.

As for today, Erick accompanied President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to distribute 8,261 tons of rice food aid in West Kalimantan.

This figure is equivalent to 77.7 percent of the target of 10,637 tons. This Rice Food Assistance targets 934,256 Beneficiary Families (KPM) throughout West Kalimantan.

For your information, previously the government through the National Food Agency (Bapanas) and Perum Bulog had officially suspended rice food assistance ahead of the 2024 General Election (Pemilu).

The distribution of rice food aid began to be temporarily suspended from February 8 to February 14 and resumed on February 15, 2024.

This policy was issued in honor of the election and did not interfere with the democratic process.

This rice food aid is fully managed by the National Food Agency together with Bulog.

This assistance was carried out massively by cooperating with local governments nationally.

Rice Food Assistance is a government program in the form of rice distribution sourced from the Government Rice Reserve (CBP) stock managed by Bulog.

This program is one of the utilization of CBP in accordance with the mandate of Presidential Regulation Number 125 of 2022 concerning Management of Government Food Reserves.

As is known, this Rice Food aid has been implemented since the beginning of 2023 in 2 stages and then continued in 2024.

Rice food assistance in 2024 is distributed from January to March and can be extended from April to June with a note that the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) is still possible.