PDI-P, Golkar oppose govt’s rice import policy

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Golkar Party factions at the House of Representatives lambasted the government’s plan to import 2.5 million tons of rice with a zero import duty saying it was unpopular and would affect the livelihood of farmers.

The two major factions proposed Wednesday the plan to cancel it during a meeting between the agriculture minister and the House’s Commission IV overseeing agriculture, forestry and plantation.

The factions also proposed during a meeting between the trade minister and Commission VI on industry, trade and state enterprises to review a 2010 ministerial decree exempting import duties on rice imports.

Deputy chairwoman of PDI-P faction Puan Maharani told The Jakarta Post the import rice plan showed that the government had no political will to protect farmers while the zero import duty showed that the government did not understand the world trade in which many countries had suspended rice imports to press inflation rates.

“Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency [BPS] and field monitoring, the PDI-P faction strongly opposed the planned import because farmers will be producing 6.5 million tons of unhusked rice during the harvest season between January and April,” she said.

“We have frequently told the government that the import policy will certainly affect the livelihood of farmers and the national food resilience so why does the government insist on importing rice?”

She said if the government went ahead with the plan, her faction would ensure the government purchased all rice produced by farmers during the current harvest season at the standard price.

She added the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) had purchased only a part of 5.6 million tons of unhusked rice produced by farmers in 2010.

Commission VI chairman Airlangga Hartarto said the commission had repeatedly asked Trade Minister Mari Pangestu to revoke the controversial decree, which compromised the food resilience policy, hurting the farmers.

“The government should be transparent on food stocks for the first semester this year and it should closely monitor the condition of rice-belt provinces such as West Java, East Java, Central Java and North Sumatra supplying the national stocks,” he said, adding that despite the extreme weather, farmers in the rice-belt provinces were expected to produce around 6 million tons of rice in the first semester.

Commission IV chairman Firman Subagyo condemned the planned rice import and the zero import duty, which he said had gravely affected the agriculture sector.

“The government has not informed us on the planned import while we receive the information from field trips during the recent recess. The government must suspend importing the rice in the first semester and purchase rice in the harvest season instead,” he said.

He warned the planned import would create instability as Bulog was expected to purchase the farmers’ rice below-standard price.

Indonesian Farmers’ Association (HKTI) secretary-general Fadli Zon said the HKTI had sent a letter to the President to suspend the rice import because despite extreme weather recently, farmers still managed to harvest rice until April.

He said the HKTI understood the import of 3 million tons of rice from Thailand and Vietnam last year was mainly due to negative impacts caused by extreme weather in the agriculture sector.