T

he State Logistics Agency (Bulog) has said that the national stock of subsidized rice will be close to running out by the year'€™s end. This coincides with a government decision to distribute more rice to the poor.

Bulog'€™s president director Djarot Kusumayakti said that by December, the agency'€™s stock for subsidized rice would reach 62,000 tons, while it needed around 1.5 to 2 million tons to meet next year'€™s demand before harvest time.

Djarot said Bulog initially expected rice stocks at the end of this year to reach around 1.5 million tons. However, this expectation came before President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo instructed Bulog to disburse more subsidized rice as part of his economic policy package to restore purchasing power and confidence in an economy that has declined to a six-year low in growth.

'€œWe should anticipate this to prevent rice shortages next year,'€ he said Thursday during a meeting with members of the House'€™s Commission IV overseeing agriculture, food, forestry, plantations, fisheries and maritime affairs. '€œAnd we still do not know in what month next year the harvest time will be. We are still waiting for rain to come.'€

The subsidized rice program, called beras sejahtera (prosperous rice), has been extended to 14 months of delivery instead of 12 months amid concerns over the impact of the El Niño-induced dry weather that has cut rice production in some regions.

When asked whether the shortage meant that the government would import rice next year to fulfill national demand for the staple food, Djarot said his agency had no authority to make such a decision.

'€œBulog has no authority to calculate [how many more tons] we need to import,'€ he told reporters after the meeting.

The government could solve the shortage either by procuring more rice from local farmers or by converting the existing premium rice into subsidized rice, according to Djarot. Including premium non-subsidized rice, total rice stocks at Bulog stood at around 800,000 to 900,000 tons.

'€œWe are raising the issue [to members of Commission IV] because we do not have the authority to decide [whether to convert or not],'€ he said.

Meanwhile, Bulog proposed to members of Commission IV during the meeting to approve its proposal to get an extra Rp 3.4 trillion (US$234.7 million) in funding to finance two additional months of subsidized rice distribution.

The ongoing drought, triggered by El Niño, has affected rice production in several regions across Indonesia.

The Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday said the government would not increase its target for rice production next year because of the drought. In 2016, the government hopes to produce 47 million tons rice, the same amount as total rice production predicted for this year by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

'€œThe reason the target remains the same is because this year we have experienced El Niño and that has severely affected our rice production,'€ Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said recently. (saf)