History Of Self-Sufficiency And Dependence On Indonesian Rice Imports

President Soeharto and Mrs. Tien Soeharto while attending the main harvest at the Tilt III Land transmigration site, Manokwari, Irian Jaya on May 7, 1994. (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Suharto and the New Order (Orba) have been serious about advancing the agricultural sector. They try everything so that the rice plants can be surplus. Training and access to fertilizers are opened wide. Farmers are happy. The harvest is abundant.

This narrative made Indonesia achieve self-sufficiency in rice. This achievement brought praise. However, self-sufficiency in rice did not last long. Indonesia was forced to re-import rice in the 1990s. The number of imports was increasing when the economic crisis hit Indonesia.

Andil Suharto and the New Order built a large enough Indonesia. The owner of the power to carry out development in all lines. The food sector was not forgotten. Suharto still remembers very well how miserable the people were when the economic recession hit Indonesia in the 1960s.

Food prices are increasing and the Indonesian people are becoming miserable. Suharto did not want the incident to happen again in the New Order era. He began to focus on developing agriculture in Indonesia. The main focus is increasing rice production.

This desire was inflamed into a program. Mass Guidance (BIMAS), his name. New Order also involves many parties, the government, and the private sector. The program is also able to help the community to increase rice products.

They were given assistance for counseling, fertilizers, and pesticides. The people were also given understanding and access regarding the presence of new technology in the world of food. Indonesia's rice production rate slowly increased in the 1970s.

Indonesia is also able to meet its own rice with a production of 25.8 million tons. This amount is much different from the early days of the New Order which was only able to produce 12.2 million tons. This achievement amazed the World Food Organization belonging to the United Nations, FAO.

Suharto was asked to speak to their official forum. The Smiling General was asked to share his experience and strategy in increasing agricultural production. Fao also initiated Suharto by giving awards to Suharto in 1986. FAO awarded a gold medal with the sentence:From Rice to Self Suficiency.

To reporters from FAO Director General Dr. Edouard Souma said that the awarding of the medal was the first time that FAO represented 158 member states. The world food organization's supreme leader expressed his gratitude to President Suharto for the speech delivered at the FAO 40th anniversary session in Rome.

On this occasion the Director General of FAO will receive the first phase of food assistance from Indonesian farmers for the African people who are being hit by food shortages, this assistance was promised by the FAO Roma trial last year, as much as 100,150 tons of rice and will be handed over in the form of money worth 17.5 billion rupiah. This is the first time he experienced it during his time as Director General of FAO for ten years and by previous officials, "written in the book of the Second President of the Republic of Indonesia, General H.M. Suharto in the news: 1985-1986 (2008).

The success of self-sufficiency in rice continues to be inflamed by Suharto and New Order. They made it a matter of pride and achievement. Moreover, Indonesia did not import rice at all in 1985-1986.

Economic observer Faisal Basri revealed that Indonesia even exported 106 thousand tons of rice each in 1985 and 231 thousand tons in 1986. Recently, Indonesia's rice exports have dimmed.

The New Order government is considered to have failed in developing rice production so that it continues to achieve self-sufficiency in rice. This failure was triggered by not all areas suitable for rice planting. The government also focuses on maintaining price stability.

Efforts to equalize are considered to appear on its own. However, this did not happen. This condition is exacerbated by the uniformity of the rice seeds used. The idea of uniforming seeds like master's food weapons. One side of uniformity makes many varieties of rice in Java destroyed.

On the other hand, this uniformity in fact carries a lot of pests and makes farmers fail to harvest. A series of problems made Indonesia import hundreds of thousands of tons again in the 1990s. That number jumped sharply to close to 3 million tons.

Indonesian rice imports are increasing during the 1997-1998 economic crisis. As a result, Indonesia's dream of returning to self-sufficiency in rice is difficult. In fact, until now the dream has never been realized again.

At that time, food security was only reviewed from the stability of rice prices, while the equitable distribution and basic structure of the economy were not well built. This has led to Indonesia's return: importing rice into the 1990s decade. Even in 1995, Indonesia's dependence on rice imports reached around 3 million tons. This situation is further exacerbated by the situation of the economic crisis that hit Asia in 1997.

The New Order also makes rice something sacred and has a high degree so that those who do not eat it are underdeveloped and ancient people. This propaganda suppresses local culinary traditions of society such as corn, sweet potatoes, cassava, potatoes and others. In fact, not all regions in Indonesia are suitable for rice planting, this ultimately strengthens Indonesia's dependence on rice and when rice producing areas are no longer able to cover their needs in other areas," said Dhianita Kusuma Pertiwi in the book Regarding the New Order (2021).