The government is undecided about whether it will import rice from neighboring countries as it is still reviewing the impact of the prolonged drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, President Joko '€œJokowi'€Widodo has said.

Jokowi said the government still needed to calculate the impact of the long drought on potential harvest failures in several rice-producing regions across the country. Indonesia is the world'€™s third-biggest consumer of rice after China and India.

Rice production in Indonesia, Southeast Asia'€™s biggest economy, is expected to be below the 45 million tons targeted for this year.

'€œWe are still calculating everything, because we need a reserve that we can be convinced about, so that we don'€™t need to be unsure and have to recalculate,'€ Jokowi said as quoted by kompas.com during a visit to rice fields in Karawang, West Java on Sunday.

Jokowi said the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) had calculated that the country'€™s overall rice reserve currently amounted to 1.7 million tons, with six provinces in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi serving as the main suppliers of the commodity.

The reserve was expected to increase by another 200,000 tons to 300,000 tons during the harvest season in October and November this year, Jokowi added.

According to him, '€œthe rice reserve is quite safe'€ although El Nino might continue until December.

'€œOur priority is to ensure adequate supply, smooth distribution and affordable prices of rice. We will conduct widespread market operations this week to help push down the prices,'€ Jokowi said, referring to inspections performed by officials to learn first hand about market conditions.

Jokowi'€™s statement on Sunday contradicted a comment made recently by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who said that Bulog was in the process of purchasing around 1.5 million tons of rice from Thailand and Vietnam due to concerns about rising prices of the staple food that could cause social unrest.

According to Kalla, importing rice is a sound move that can be undertaken to help ensure the country'€™s supply as the current reserve of subsidized rice (raskin) in Bulog storage is only 1.5 million tons until year'€™s end, far lower than the monthly average consumption of 2.5 tons to 3 tons nationwide.

'€œI would like to emphasize that we are being forced to import because of the drought. We'€™re taking the rice issue very seriously. We could delay imports of chilis or shallots, but when it comes to rice, we'€™re not playing around,'€ Kalla said last Tuesday while on a visit to the US.

Jokowi has set a target for the country to be self-sufficient in rice within the third year of his term of office, while Kalla is optimistic the target is achievable within two years if drought is not factored in.

Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman has taken the target to the extreme as he has previously stated that no imports are needed this year despite the drought and has sternly opposed any attempts to import.

However, Kalla asserted that Amran had retracted his statement and agreed to the import plan, saying that '€œwhen it comes to ensuring supply and price stabilization, Bulog has the sole authority.'€

Bulog recently said it had been buying husked and unhusked rice at premium prices from local farmers.

Bulog executives declined to comment on the president'€™s statement when contacted by The Jakarta Post.

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