Letter: We need appropriate food strategy

Mon, 04/28/2008 11:40 AM  |  Reader's Forum

As an agrarian and maritime nation, Indonesia has been questioned by many for not having an appropriate food strategy. Take the recent decision by the government to allow the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to export rice, if the national stock of rice exceeds 3 million tons. From a steady importing rice country with an average of 1.5 million tons of imports a year, it now plans to export rice. Such an idea has, of course, produced pros and cons. I think it's deplorable.

The latest cases of malnutrition in many parts of the country should have served as input for the government to make the right food strategy. It's strange that while Vietnam and Thailand -- two major rice exporting countries in the region -- are stopping their rice exports as a result of soaring global food prices, Indonesia turns its policy from importing to exporting rice because of its rice "surplus" production.

This strategy should have taken into account last year's estimate made by the minister of agriculture that there was an excess of 1.7 million tons of rice after consumption (The Jakarta Post, Feb. 16), but as yet, malnutrition was happening in South Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, Java and other parts of the country. Of course, they experienced this after a period of months going without adequate food.

On the other hand, I presume, the social ministry was not involved when the decision to export rice was made by the government. This ministry, that deals with social welfare, should provide exact information about the conditions of the poor and their poverty, and ask the coordinating minister for people's welfare to prioritize the social welfare of all people without leaving even a single family to go without food.

So what is the right strategy for the food resilience of the country, then? I think the policy to export rice, albeit after the three million tons were achieved, should be reversed. One of the strategies is to prioritize self-sufficiency of rice first, like we enjoyed in the 1980s.

Purchase farmers' rice production at an appropriate price so that their standard of living improves, and so they will eventually and vigorously work harder to grow their paddy fields. It's then for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who heads his Cabinet to decide on the strategy.

By making the right food strategy, President SBY (himself with a doctorate in agriculture from a noted institute in Bogor) will certainly win the hearts of the people, and easily win the 2009 presidential election.

M. RUSDI
Jakarta

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.