Rice Food Assistance Continues, Badanas Boss Asks Local Government To Re-check Recipient Data

Rice Food Assistance (Photo: Badanas)

JAKARTA The National Food Agency (Bapanas) requested that local governments (Pemda) again check the data on recipients of rice food assistance. This is in line with the continuation of the assistance for October and November 2025.

Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi said the involvement of local governments to help re-check in their respective areas was very important before the re-implementation next month.

Furthermore, Arief said this step was to ensure that the recipients of rice food assistance were not qualified by the community.

"Regarding the re-implementation of rice food assistance, local governments need to help and provide input, because local governments know the best conditions in their area. Do not let the recipients of rice aid be received by officials or their families," said Arief in an official statement, Thursday, September 18.

Arief said the data on recipients of rice food assistance will use the National Socio-Economic Integrated Data (DTSEN). Therefore, local governments need to re-check.

"That's why there is an adjustment to the DTSEN data submitted from the center to the regions. The goal is that if there is a correction from the regions, we accept the feedback and it can be adjusted," he explained.

"This is still time, because we are still waiting for a budget transfer from the Ministry of Finance. About this week please prepare a check," he continued.

As is known, the rice food assistance program in 2025 as its first implementation has been running for the allocation of 2 months, June and July.

As of September 17, the realization has been disbursed as much as 363,500 tons or 99.44 percent of the total target of 365,500 tons. The regions that have not been completed are because most of them have geographical challenges, so it takes longer for the distribution process.

As one of the positive impacts, the distribution of rice food assistance can be seen in the monthly rice inflation movement. The monthly rice inflation in July 2025 was at 1.35 percent and became the highest number during 2025. However, rice inflation was successfully suppressed and in August 2025 it became lower at 0.73 percent.

For the next stage, President Prabowo Subianto has decided to continue rice food assistance for 2 months in October and November. The target recipients are 18,277,083 with a budget of IDR 7 trillion. In addition, the government will later evaluate the continuation in December depending on the optimity level of program realization.