Wow! Moeldoko Bisiki Jokowi recalls that there is a threat regarding rice

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Office of the Presidential Staff (KSP) warned that measures regarding rice should be taken immediately so that the situation does not worsen. Additionally, traders at the Cipinang Main Rice Market (PIBC) in Jakarta reported signs that rice prices would rise again.

On the other hand, national rice consumption has actually increased. KSP noted that rice consumption during the period January-April 2024 increased to 10.27 million tonnes compared to January-April 2023 which was recorded at 10.17 million tonnes.

This was conveyed by KSP Deputy III for Economic Affairs Edy Priyono at the 2024 Regional Inflation Control Coordination Meeting on Monday (24/6/2024). According to him, KSP Head Moeldoko also reported the situation to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

“Maybe this month or next month, because June is about to end, we will start to have a deficit. Here, the chief of staff sent a memo to the president about this. And it would be good if we shared it here, with the regions,” he said.

“So if we analyze, there has been a drop in rice production compared to last year. There has been a drop in production of around 2 million tonnes. This is a very significant drop because it happened in just 1 year,” Edy added.

He explained that rice production between January and April 2024 fell to 10.94 million tonnes compared to the same period of 2023 which was recorded at 12.98 million tonnes. This means that there is a decrease in production of around 2 million tonnes.

This situation had an impact on the rice surplus during this period. It was reported that the rice surplus in January-April 2024 had fallen to only about 670,000 tonnes compared to the same period in 2023, which had reached 2.82 million tonnes.

Edy said the decline was due to a number of factors.

“If we study the causes, the first is due to the decrease in the harvested area compared to last year. In January-April 2023, the harvested area reached 4.2 million hectares (ha), while this year it was only 3.5 million hectares,” he explained.

“The decrease in harvested area is due to a decrease in planted area. The planted area from October 2023 to February 2024 reached only 5.4 million hectares. A decrease of 1.9 million hectares compared to the average of the previous 5 years which reached 7.4 million hectares,” explained Edy.

Not only that.

Edy cited data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) which recorded a decline in the number of farmers and agricultural business households (RTUP). It was recorded that in 2019 there were 33,106,115 TURPs.

However, this figure will decrease sharply to reach 28,419,398 TURP in 2023. There is an average decrease each year of 1,171,679 TURP.

“This decline is closely linked to the decline in planted areas,” he said.

“This drop in rice production is confirmed by the results of the KSA (Area Sample Framework) data which projects the total rice production from January to July 2024 at 18.64 million tonnes. 2.47 million tonnes less than the same period in 2023,” explained Edy.

This is why, he continued, it is urgent to treat this pathology so that it does not get worse.

“We must now anticipate, we must not just be firefighters. We must act downstream. We can also manage it as much as possible upstream,” believes Edy.

BPS Warning

On the same occasion, Acting BPS Head Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti revealed that the price of rice in the third week of June 2024 further decreased by 0.95 percent compared to May 2024.

“However, the number of cities/districts experiencing an increase in rice prices increased in the third week of June 2024. There are 63 districts/cities that are starting to experience an increase in rice prices,” said Amalia .

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

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