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urrent rice stocks were sufficient to weather the peak of the El Niño weather phenomenon, the government announced on Friday.

Presidential Chief of Staff Teten Masduki said on Friday that President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo was continuing to monitor the efforts to ensure that rice stocks were sufficient and evenly distributed throughout the country.

Teten issued the statement amid reports that the government was planning to import rice from neighboring countries Thailand and Vietnam because of the El Niño impact.

'€œThere is indeed a threat, a possibility that [the calculation of] food stocks might be changed by El Niño. But, until now, the food stocks at Bulog [State Logistics Agency] are relatively sufficient,'€ Teten said at the Presidential Palace on Friday.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recently acknowledged that its national rice output estimate of 75.5 million tons this year did not factor in the potential impact of El Niño, hinting that the real production figure could be lower as a result of harvest failure.

The estimate was based on real production between January and April without taking into account potential crop failures resulting from the long drought in the harvest season between May and December. The figure showed a 6.64 percent increase compared with last year.

Bulog has said that by December, the agency'€™s stocks of subsidized rice would reach 62,000 tons from the 1.5 to 2 million tons needed to meet next year'€™s demand, while its current total remaining stocks stood at 1.7 million tons.

Meanwhile, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Tuesday that Bulog was currently in the process of purchasing around 1.5 million tons of rice from Thailand and Vietnam following concerns that rising prices of Indonesia'€™s staple food could cause social unrest.

Teten, however, declined to comment on the plan.

'€œThis is not about whether to import or not to import. It is about how the government ensures that prices are affordable amid people'€™s weakening purchasing power caused by the current global economic slowdown,'€ Teten said.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has predicted that the El Niño weather phenomenon will reach its peak in October, while the prolonged drought has caused harvest failures in several rice-producing regions.

According to Teten, the precise effect that El Niño would have on national rice production was still being calculated.

'€œBut, rest assured, the President is giving his full attention to matters related to food stocks,'€ Teten added.

In its efforts to anticipate El Niño-related drought and harvest failure, the government has built irrigation channels spanning 1.3 million hectares, small dams and shallow wells. The Agriculture Ministry has also distributed 21,000 water pumps to farmers in drought-prone areas.