Extreme weather forces Indonesia to import rice

Yahoo News 15 Oct 10;

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia will be forced to import rice in bulk and reduce exports of other commodities after extreme weather harmed agriculture over the past few months, officials said Friday.

Crop yields -- especially rice -- were harmed when the La Nina phenomenon significantly reduced the dry season period between April and September, said Indonesian Farmers Association secretary general Benny Pasaribu.

"La Nina played a big role in decreasing agricultural output. It has caused flooding across Indonesia that also reduced production of some crops," he said.

"If this condition persists, then crop output could sink further," he added.

La Nina is a weather pattern that leads to stronger monsoons, greater rainfall and hurricanes in the Pacific basin.

"Growth in rice production has reached only two percent this year compared to 6.7 percent in 2009," said state logistics agency head Sutarto Alimoeso.

"In order to maintain the stockpile of rice, the agency will import rice from Thailand and Vietnam," he added.

Indonesia, the world's third largest rice producer, is expected to import up to 300,000 metric tonnes of rice in the country's first bulk purchase since 2007.

Indonesian Cocoa Association chairman Zulhefi Sikumbang said La Nina had also caused many cocoa plants to be infected by fungus and eventually rot.

"Compared to last year, the production of cocoa has fallen more than 10 percent. The farmers in Sulawesi and Sumatra islands are affected the most by this," he said.

In 2009, cocoa production reached 550,000 tonnes, while this year it is predicted to total 500,000 tonnes despite a target of 600,000 tonnes.

The intense rainfall has also disrupted chilli crops, rubber-tapping activity and production of minerals such as tin and coal.

But Indonesia's palm oil industry, the world's largest, has mostly been unaffected.

The local climatology agency has predicted that the extreme weather across the archipelago will continue until March next year.

A similar weather pattern occurred in 1998, but this year's rainfall was more intense, according to the agency.

Indonesia has abundant biodiversity: alternative staples to rice
Antara 15 Oct 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has abundant biodiversity as an alternative in place of rice as staple food, an environmentalist has said.

"We have biodiversity in abundance as an alternative to replace rice as staple food and therefore don`t worry about food shortage," former environment minister Emil Salim said here.

The member of Presidential Advisory Council as the adviser for environment and sustainable development issues said other staple food in place of rice had long been known by Indonesian people but unfortunately it has yet to be popularized to replace rice.

He said that if the abundant biodiversity was used properly, the government would not bother itself to import rice because Indonesia has more than 30 types of hybrid rice and over 100 varieties of non-hybrid rice that had been developed by the farmers.

Besides, Indonesia is also rich in basic food of various kinds such as sago, edible tuber, corn and other stuff that could be developed to replace rice.

The government is planning to launch "A Day Without Rice" campaign this year in a bid to reduce ride consumption in Indonesia because it is double to global consumption.

With that "A Day Without Rice" campaign, it is expected to create 1.2 million tons of rice efficiency and to reduce the people`s dependency on rice.

Indonesia experiences a decrease in rice production this year because of extreme weather condition and and incessant rain that has created harvest failure in a number of areas across the country.

Indonesians Urged to Kick Rice Habit
Bilhuda Haryanto Jakarta Globe 21 Oct 10;

Jakarta. As cases of poverty-induced starvation still occur in resource-rich Indonesia, the government is calling on people to diversify their diets in order to strengthen the nation’s food resilience.

“We have numerous sources of carbohydrates [in Indonesia], so we need to end our sole dependency on rice. There are sweet potatoes [for instance] and there is cassava,” Indroyono Soesilo, the secretary general at the Coordinating Ministry for People’s Welfare, said at an international seminar held in Jakarta last Saturday, on World Food Day 2010.

The ministry says about 30 million people in Indonesia live below the poverty line. But it aims to have reduced that number by 8 percent in 2014.

Soesilo said a long-term strategy is needed to wean the country off its dependence on rice, which nowadays has to be imported.

“It is crucial for us to cut down starvation, food insufficiency and to eliminate poverty,” he added.

In Indonesia, 77 foodstuffs are grown with nutritional values similar to rice, so, according to Soesilo, a transition should not be too difficult.

But development in the fields of technology and farming infrastructure are still necessary to help boost food supplies.

“The research and development team at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology has come up with an invention to produce noodles from corn flour and sago flour,” Soesilo said.

“It would help cut our demand for imported wheat, which is the primary ingredient to the wheat flour needed to make our instant noodles,” he added.

The director for food and agriculture at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Wahyuningsih Darajatiningsih, said corn, sweet potatoes and cassava can be harvested several times a year in Indonesia and thus could be in abundance.

Yet, she said, the Indonesian demand for rice remains much larger than demand for other potential staple foods.

Hasbullah Thabrany, a public health expert from the University of Indonesia, lamented what he called a lack of effort on the part of the government and said a solution to the country’s food-supply problem should immediately be found.

“The government needs to face the problems instead of just telling fairy tales about its successful policies,” he said.

“Government subsidies should go to assisting [farmers] during the harvesting season, because full potential is seldom reached,” he added.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 13 percent of Indonesians are poor and have insufficient access to food.

“The main problem is [food] distribution and access,” said Benni H Sormin, assistant FAO representative for Indonesia.

However, Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono denied there are cases of starvation in the country.

“No Indonesians are starving at this moment. And even if there is starvation, we must fight it in a serious, focused and systematic way,” he was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.