Friday, March 5, 2010
News Focus : RI Poised to Maintain Rice Self-Reliance for Second Straight Year
Source: ANTARA News
By Suharto

Jakarta - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has projected Indonesia`s dry unhusked rice output at 64.9 million tons this year, suggesting it may be enough to maintain self-reliance in rice production for the second year in a row.

BPS Chief Rusman Heriawan said early this month the 2010 unhusked rice production forecast represented a 0.88 percent increase from 2009 when it was 64.33 million tons.

"Compared to 2008 it increases 4 million tons or 6.64 percent," he said.

He said the area of paddy field was expected to increase by 13.71 thousand hectares and the productivity of every hectare of paddy field by 39 kg this year.

"The increase in the 2010 rice production forecast is a pessimistic target compared to the previous years when it could reach up to 5 percent," he said.

Indonesia regained self-reliance in rice production last year when its rice production rose 6.64 percent from a year earlier. Rice is the main staple in the country of more than 250 million people.

Agriculture Minister Suswono said his office had committed itself to increase rice production by an average of 3.22 percent in each of the next five years.

The target was set to ensure that Indonesia would always be in secure place to meet its need for food, he said.

Many regions had set their own target of rice production for this year with some of them expressing pessimism about raising their rice production.

The West Java provincial statistics office early this month announced the province`s provisional unhusked rice production forecast of 10.92 million tons for 2010, down 3.10 percent from a year earlier.

"The decline in rice production forecast for 2010 may result from a 2.64 percent drop in the area of harvested rice field and a 0.48 percent fall in the productivity of rice field," Chief of the West Java Provincial Statistics Office Maman Sukherman said.

The belated planting season due to the El Nino phenomenon at the end of 2009 and flooding at the start of this year leading to failed harvest were responsible for the drop, he said.

A decline in rice production may also affect Yogyakarta province this year.

The Yogyakarta provincial statistics office has predicted the province`s unhusked rice output this year to fall 6.65 percent from 618,351 tons last year due in part to declining harvest and productivity.

The area of harvested rice field was likely to fall 4.30 percent to 101.073 hectares and productivity of every hectare of rice field 2.46 percent to 6.11 tons, Head of the Yogyakarta Statistics Office Suharno said.

"Yet the forecast is merely based on the conditions at the end of 2009 so it is still likely to change," he said.

West Nusa Tenggara province is expected to also see a shortfall in its rice production this year due to the declining area of rice field.

"Based on the first forecast of rice output for 2010 rice output this year will decline 10.31 percent to 1,677,841 tons from the year before," Head of the West Nusa Tenggara Provincial Statistics Office Soegarenda said.

"The first forecast still can change or even increase now that the area of rice field in January was relatively high. Therefore, the area of harvested rice field in the January-April 2009 period is expected to exceed the forecast," he said.

By contrast, Central Kalimantan province has raised the target of unhusked rice output for this year to 604,241 tons, a 4.4 percent increase compared to the year before.

"In total, unhusked rice production from 14 districts and municipalities throughout East Kalimantan will reach 604,241 tons, up slightly from 578,771 tons last year," Head of the Central Kalimantan Provincial Statistics Office Dantes Simbolon said.

The rice would be produced from 223,698 hectares of rice field with the productivity of every hectare expected to increase 2 kg to 2.71 tons, he said.

Compared to last year, the area of rice field this year rose 9.243 hectares thanks to the local government`s efforts to create new rice fields in a number of areas, he said.

North Sulawesi joined other provinces in the country in raising the target of rice output for this year.

"North Sulawesi has been targeted to gain self-reliance in rice production this year. To that end, since the past few years efforts have been made to empower farmers to increase their rice production. And the efforts were quite successful last year," Head of the Production Statistics Section at the North Sulawesi Provincial Statistics Office Didik Tjahjawinardi said.

Floods that swept through a number of areas in the country may affect rice production this year. Floods inundated thousands of hectares of rice field in West Java, Central Java, South Sumatra and Jambi provinces.

But Agriculture Minister Suswono said the area of flood-destroyed rice field had yet to become cause for concern.

"There is still no reason for concern," he said after a meeting in Bali last month.

He said the area of flood-destroyed rice field reached an estimated 42,000 hectares, or less than 1 percent of the existing 12 million hectares of rice field.