FAJAR.CO.ID, JAKARTA — President Jokowi and the Governor of Central Java (Central Java) Ganjar Pranowo, Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto, and Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo in Kebumen during the farmers’ harvest drew many comments.
Moreover, President Jokowi’s recent controversial policy of importing rice on a large scale.
Seeing this, Political Science Observer Tatok Sugiarto also commented on President Jokowi’s policies.
“If you are truly committed to advancing agriculture, Indonesia will be self-sufficient in rice from yesterday and will not import rice and farmers will be more prosperous,” said Tatok in his statement (10/3/2023).
Previously, the volume of rice imports in January 2023 was recorded at 243.65 million kilograms.
The import volume increased by 550.01 percent on an annual basis or year on year (yoy) when compared to the volume of rice imports in January 2022 which was 37.48 million kilograms.
The procurement of rice from abroad was carried out to fulfill government rice reserves (CBP) belonging to Perum Bulog which were already very depleted, even far from the stipulated limit of 1-1.2 million tons.
CBP stock belonging to Perum Bulog is important because it is used to reduce price increases in the market, deal with disaster emergencies, handle post-disaster food insecurity, social assistance, and international cooperation.(Muhsin/fajar)
