Badanas Encourages Farmers To Advance In Class To Produce Quality Harvest

Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi (right) and Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan/ANTARA/HO-Humas Badanas

JAKARTA - Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi encourages an increase in the class of farmers so that they can produce quality rice harvests, in order to support resilience and realize food self-sufficiency.

"We suggest that our farmers should be able to be raised in class," said Arief at the Food Coordination Meeting, chaired by the Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan in Makassar, South Sulawesi, as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, January 18.

Arief said that the step upscaling needs to be done so that farmers do not only rely on dry harvest unhulled rice (GKP), so that production differentiation can be created.

Moreover, the target for the procurement of Bulog in 2025 for dry milling unhulled rice (GKG) is greater than GKP.

"So, the Gapoktan (a combination of farmer groups) are given a Dryer (perpetrator) facility, so they can support Bulog at a price of Rp. 8,000 and 8,200 for dry milling (GKG) unhulled rice," explained Arief.

He said, optimizing the absorption of farmers' crops during the main harvest period must involve the synergy and collaboration of all parties. This includes optimizing the absorption of farmers' unhulled rice during the harvest momentum to fill the government's rice reserves (CBP) with good quality rice.

"Bulog as of January 15, 2025, is indeed asked to absorb harvested dry grain (GKP) at a price of Rp. 6,500 per kilogram. However, it should be noted that there are other factors such as water levels in the grain according to the established standards," explained Arief.

In accordance with the Decree of the National Food Agency (Kepbadan) Number 2 of 2025 concerning Amendments to Government Purchase Prices (HPP) and Rice Price Rates, the GKP quality standard for the price of IDR 6,500 per kg is set at a maximum of 25 percent water levels and a maximum vacuum level of 10 percent.

With these quality standards, the rice distributed to the people is quality rice.

Badanas has started to apply the adjustment of the grain HPP since 2023, the GKP quality standard at the farmer level continues to be determined with a maximum water level of 25 percent and a maximum vacuum level of 10 percent. From that, the trend of realization of Bulog procurement from domestic production continues to climb

Throughout 2022, the realization of domestic procurement will be 994 thousand tons. The next year in 2023, 71 thousand tons increased to a total of 1.066 million tons. Finally, the achievement throughout 2024 became the culmination point in the last 5 years, which was an increase of 200 thousand tons to a total of 1.266 million tons.

Meanwhile, the President Director of Perum Bulog Wahyu Suparyono expressed his commitment to absorbing farmers' products according to the predetermined criteria.

He conveyed that in addition to the stipulation regarding the HPP of unhulled rice and rice, Bulog was also given the flexibility to absorb unhulled rice outside the quality that had been set by HPP through the policy of raffing the price of unhulled rice.

He said the unhulled rice exchange was also regulated in the Agency Decree No. 2 of 2025. The axion is a reduction in the price of unhulled rice sold to Perum Bulog because its quality is lower than the standard set.

Wahyu explained that the purchase at a maximum price of Rp. 6,500 per kg with a water level of 25 percent and a maximum vacuum level of 10 percent we absorb. However, when the water level is above 26-30 percent and the vacuum level is 11-15 percent, Bulog absorbs it, but at a price of Rp. 5,750 per kg according to the provisions of the price rafaction.

"I have asked all regional leaders to be guided by this provision," said Wahyu.

Minister Zulkifli Hasan (Zulhas) underlined the importance of cooperation between all relevant parties.

With the food sector coordination meeting which is held in turns in rice center areas, it will encourage each region to continue to work together to maximize the absorption of farmers' products.

"We will harvest the highway from the end of February to April. Therefore, we have to work extra and synergize. It is impossible for Bulog to work alone. And, we hold this food coordination meeting here. Finally, later in North Sumatra. South Sulawesi is a mainstay for national food, to realize food self-sufficiency," said Zulhas.