Bali urged to stockpile food in anticipation of shortages

Udayana University professor Dewa Ngurah Suprapta is urging the local administration to create food reserves in anticipation of potential shortages as Bali is relying on outside supplies.

“The food reserve [plan] is adopted from a similar concept made by the Balinese in the past. But now, we should make reserves at the village, district and regency levels,” he said.

In the past, each household in Bali had a granary, known as a klumpu or jineng, where unhusked rice was stored.

A larger reserve could hold crops after harvesting, he said. Having a stable reserve would protect the island from fluctuations in the price and overall supply of rice.

“Unfortunately, the government never responds to my idea,” he said.

Suprapta warned that Bali was becoming more dependent on outside food supplies, despite still having large agriculture areas amid rising land conversion.

“Harvested crops continue to decrease. On the other hand, technology [to process crops] doesn’t show any improvement,” he said.

People were not interested in agriculture investment due to the high price of land and a lack of resources, he added. “Therefore, building a food reserve is necessary because Bali has lagged behind in food processing technology.”

The provincial agriculture agency will instead draft a bylaw over “sustainable agriculture land” to protect 81,000 hectares of farming land, of the existing 82,000 hectares used for crops. The government will prohibit the conversion of the land for other purposes.

“We are still waiting for a decision of regency and municipal administrations over which land they would declare as protected,” agency head Putra Suryawan said.

He said that the policy was expected to stop land conversion and rebuild the island’s ability to feed itself.

The protected land has also been included in the island’s land-use master plan. Putra said that land conversion was decreasing, from 1,000 hectares per year to 140 hectares.

According to the latest data, Bali has 81,908 hectares of farming land, with 22,000 hectares located in Tabanan. Most of the other farmland is in Gianyar and Badung.

Provincial trade and industrial agency data showed that of nine main foods, six were supplied by other provinces.

Products from outside Bali are in high demand. The supply of rice from outside Bali could reach 5,000 tons per month. In the second half of 2011, demand for rice rose to 45,900 tons. With a need of about 450,000 tons a year, Bali plans to increase rice production to 500,000 tons this year.

However, the administration has said that the island needed rice supplied from outside Bali because it lacked sufficient processing and packing facilities.