RI reaches self-sufficiency in corn: Ministry

The Jakarta Post   |  Wed, 04/08/2009 6:30 PM  |  National

Indonesia has succeeded in achieving self-sufficiency in corn, as domestic production has reached 90 percent of domestic demand, the Agriculture Ministry announced proudly on Wednesday.

"We have become self-sufficient in corn and have also begun exporting the product. However, this does not mean that imports have stopped. But domestic production is now meeting 90 percent of national demand. In 2008 we also exported corn," the ministry's director general of food crops, Sutarto Alimoeso, said.

In 2008, Indonesia imported 170,000 tons of corn and exported 150,000 tons.

Exports may still increase. This year the production target had been set at around 18 million tons, of which one million tons would be exported, Sutarto said.

Previously, the Agriculture Ministry had predicted domestic corn production to increase 14 percent this year.

National corn production in 2008 rose more than 22 percent, from 16.3 million tons in 2007.

The area of corn plantations has been increasing while productivity is also growing, with the use of "superior" seed stocks, Sutarto said.

The government subsidizes seed prices for rice, corn and beans. Besides the seed subsidy it also helps farmers to obtain supplies of superior seeds and seeds from national reserves.

For 2009, the agriculture ministry had allocated a corn seed subsidy for producing 4,266 tons of corn, on an area of 225,534 hectares.

Seed assistance taken from national seed supplies for farmers will reach 5,595 tons for an area of 353,000 hectares. Direct top seed assistance, totaling 7,610 tons, meanwhile has been allocated for an area of 507,333 hectares.

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David K. — Thu, 04/09/2009 - 1:42pm

Congratulations Indonesia for being what some insane individual considers self sufficient in corn production. I'm confused on the accounting of what we like to call profit and loss. When the government subsidizes corn production from seeds to fertilizers, does that mean that the subsidies are enjoyed by other countries?

I sometimes wonder about the exact numbers provided, because they are not always accurate. I wish that when reporting certain news that the reporters actually do this thing called fact checking. Besides that back to my original point, they should produce a system that allows subsidies for sale of goods within the country (local use) and non subsudy for production for goods for export.

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