Bulog Optimistic Absorb 600 Thousand Tons Of Rice From Farmers In May 2024

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - President Director of Perum Bulog Bayu Krisnamurthi said that with the pumping program run by the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) to increase agricultural productivity from El Nino, his party is optimistic that it will be able to absorb 600 thousand tons of rice equivalent until the end of May 2024.

"This year, the first semester, hopefully we will have more than 600 thousand tons, we must be optimistic. But we also know that there are still many conditions that we have to pay attention to, there is drought. But on the other hand, there is also a Ministry of Agriculture program with pumping," said Bayu in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, May 21.

Bayu hopes that the pumping program run by the Ministry of Agriculture with a rice fields irrigation system through water that is sucked in from the river using a pump engine can increase domestic rice production.

"We'll see who knows it (pompanization) will give significant results so that we can also procure more (domestic rice)," said Bayu

Perum Bulog noted that 1,050,000 tons of harvested dry unhulled rice had been absorbed at the farmer level or 535,000 tons of rice equivalent to domestic rice procurement until May 19, 2024.

Bayu said the rice was absorbed to strengthen the government's rice reserves (CBP). A total of 535,000 tons is a combination of rice assigned by the government or Public Service Obligation (PSO) to commercial rice.

Previously, Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman said the pumping program was one of the steps taken by the Ministry of Agriculture to accelerate the increase in rice and corn production through optimizing swampland (oplah) and increasing the rice planting index (IP) on rice fields.

He conveyed that in supporting the program, his party had provided assistance with water pumps with the realization that the procurement had reached 19,885 units out of the total 2024 procurement plan of 25,771 units.

"It has reached 80 percent of the first phase, already 19,000 out of 25,000 plans. Then the operation has also been carried out, what has been done has also been 25 percent, so now it has been a real action, we have accelerated," Amran said after the Monitoring Coordination Meeting and Evaluation of Land and Pump Optimization Activities in Jakarta, Friday 17 May.

Amran said that the potential for swampland in Indonesia is quite large, but it has problems if the intensity of rain is above normal and below normal. With the Rawa Land Optimization program, the existence of swampland can be maintained in conditions that can be planted and produced.

Likewise, in rainsheds or irrigation conditions with inadequate water volume, through pumping and irrigation activities, these locations can still be planted and allow the planting index to be increased.

Land and Pump Optimization Activities are massively and seriously designed activities. In the 2024 fiscal year, land optimization is allocated 400.000 hectares in 14 provinces with a budget of IDR 2.3 trillion.

"Meanwhile, for pumping irrigation activities, a total of 5,883 units were allocated with a budget of Rp. 650 million and a pumping of 25,771 units with an additional budget of Rp. 755 million and a allocation of rain or irrigation conditions with an inadequate volume of water," said Amran.