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National scene: Jokowi: RI has sufficient rice stocks
President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo has said that the countryâs current rice stocks are sufficient and no imports are necessary
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P
resident Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has said that the country's current rice stocks are sufficient and no imports are necessary.
'Rice demand can be met by our farmers' production, so there's no need for imports. We have imported no rice, despite pressure to do so,' the President said during a visit to rice fields in Cikarang village in Karawang, West Java, on Sunday, as quoted by Antara news agency.
Indonesia's rice stocks reach 1.7 million tons at present. In October and November, there would be further rice harvests, Jokowi added.
'That's plenty, that's safe,' he said.
Some of the stock will be distributed to poor families and put into reserves as the country is facing a dry season prolonged by El Niño.
The government, Jokowi said, was expecting an additional supply of 15 million tons from upcoming harvests between now and December.
'The future challenge is how to provide incentives for farmers to encourage them to produce more rice,' he said.
The government has designated six provinces ' West Java, East Java, Central Java, North Sumatra, South Sumatra and South Sulawesi ' to be the country's main food producers, meeting the majority of national demand. 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, which represented a 6.64 percent increase compared with last year, was based on real production between January and April without taking into account potential crop failures resulting from the long dry spell during the harvest season between May and December.
The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) has said that by December, the agency's stocks of subsidized rice will reach 62,000 tons of the 1.5 to 2 million tons needed to meet next year's demand, while its current total remaining stocks stand at 1.7 million tons.
President Jokowi was accompanied by First Lady Iriana on his visit to the village in Karawang, which is a major rice-producing area.
