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n the back of the prolonged rainy season and its impact on crops, the Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) has given its consent on the government’s plan to import food commodities, given a transparent process is in place.

HKTI chairman Prabowo Subianto said last week that the government must be transparent in importing rice, sugar and wheat to prevent abuses in the market, which could damage the livelihood of more than 80 million farmers nationwide.

“The government must be transparent on when and how the import will be conducted and the imported rice and sugar must not affect the prices of domestic products,” he said after the inauguration of HKTI’s patron board Thursday.

Previously, Agriculture Minister Suswono revealed before the House of Representatives that the government had no other choice but to import rice, sugar and wheat to maintain food security at least until December, 2010.

The rice import plan has met strong reaction from the House and the Golkar Party which lambasted the government, which they said lacked anticipatory actions in facing negative impacts of climate change. Firman Subagyo, chairman of House’s commission on agriculture, stressed that his commission was not in the position to approve or reject the government’s plan, but the problem was that the government’s lack of responses was caused by inaccurate supply of data.

“Both the Central Statistics Agency [BPS] and the State Logistics Agency [Bulog] have issued misleading information that the country’s food stocks are safe until December, 2010, but, then, the government reveals its plan to import rice, sugar and wheat. This indicates the government is not professional and not honest,” he told The Jakarta Post.

Indonesia needs 32.7 million tons of rice annually and the rice stock until December is less than the required 10 percent.

He added his commission could not prohibit the government from importing, saying “We do not want the people to suffer from starvation.”

The HKTI and the House commission were of the same view that the government should continue to press down the increasing price of fertilizers, introduce water-resistant paddy seedlings and end the conversion of productive land into housing and industrial estates, to support the national rice self-sufficiency program.

Both sides urged the government to continue providing subsidies to farmers to enable them to purchase non-organic fertilizers and pesticides.

Asked on the splinter group within the HKTI, Prabowo said his side would try to deploy a persuasive approach for the sake of farmers but it would bring the case to the court to gain legal certainty and avoid any confusion among farmers.

Following HKTI’s recent Bali congress, which re-elected Prabowo as chairman for the 2010-2015 period, the splinter group also held their own congress and elected Oesman Sapta Odang as its new chairman.