JAKARTA - Perum Bulog President Director Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani has prepared rice stocks of up to 50 tons at each airport and port in the Sumatra region to Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, Jakarta, to speed up the distribution of food assistance for disaster victims quickly.
"So, we have ordered all levels of Bulog in the disaster-affected areas, at all airports and at all ports to stock Bulog rice of at least 20 tons to 50 tons," said Rizal on the sidelines of reviewing rice stocks in the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport area, Jakarta, Sunday, quoted by Antara.
He said that this step is aimed at anticipating the sudden need for sending aid to isolated areas, such as Bener Meriah, Takengon, Agam, and Central Tapanuli, due to the land access being cut off still affected by a prolonged and heavy flood disaster.
According to Rizal, with stocks at airports and ports, rice assistance no longer has to be sent from distant warehouses so that distribution can be carried out faster and more responsive to the emergency needs of people affected by the Sumatra disaster.
Bulog ensures that the standby stock is always available daily with a minimum limit of 20 tons so that every urgent need can be served immediately without any significant logistical obstacles during the national emergency response period.
He said the rice standby policy had been implemented since three days ago, Thursday, December 11, after Bulog observed the potential for a long emergency response period due to the massive damage to infrastructure in a number of regions in Sumatra affected by major disasters.
He said that the interruption of many road access made land distribution limited so that air and sea routes became the main choice to effectively distribute food aid to people affected by the Sumatra flood disaster.
In addition to preparing standby stocks, Bulog also ensures the supply of rice, cooking oil, and sugar for public kitchens according to the needs of the local government affected by the landslide flood disaster is fast, accurate, targeted, and integrated.
He emphasized that he had asked all regional and branch leaders to the head of the Bulog warehouse to supply the needs of rice to cooking oil for the public kitchen after the request from the local head of the region.
Furthermore, he said that the distribution of public kitchen logistics was carried out as a quick response without waiting for a long administrative process in order to ensure that food services for refugees remain optimal during the emergency disaster period.
"Without having to wait for a direct answer from Kabapanas (Head of the National Food Agency/Minister of Agriculture), we do it as a quick response so that rice, oil, and sugar immediately reach the public kitchens so that they can provide the best service to flood disaster victims," said Rizal.
Rizal said that until now, Bulog has recorded national rice stocks reaching 3.7 million tons with significant availability in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra to ensure the sustainability of the food supply security of the wider community.
"For Aceh itself, rice stocks are still around 79,000 tons, in North Sumatra there are still 29,000 tons and in West Sumatra there are still 7,000 tons.
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Bulog also plans to increase stocks in West Sumatra by 20 thousand to 30 thousand tons to strengthen reserves to meet the continued needs of handling floods and landslides in the region.
He added that the synergy of Bulog with the TNI, Polri, BNPB, and BPBD ensured that logistics distribution ran smoothly, although the main challenge still came from access to roads that were cut off due to extreme natural disasters that hit Sumatra.
"And thank God, while there have been no complaints related to logistical problems, and thank God this is thanks to cooperation with the TNI, Polri, and friends from BPBD, BNPB, in this case we are synergizing to encourage logistics to the areas that are needed," said Rizal.
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