MUHAMMADIYAH.OR.ID, JAKARTA– The government imported rice to meet the government’s rice reserve (CBP) by the end of this year.
On Friday, 16 December 2022, 200 thousand tons of imported rice arrived at the Port of Tanjung Priok.
The Muhammadiyah Chairman of MSME, Community Empowerment, and Environment Anwar Abbas questioned the national rice need data source. In fact, governmental institutions often publish different data.
“Is it true that domestic production is insufficient, so the government must import rice? If that’s not enough, what’s the data source? Is it from the Ministry of Domestic Affairs, the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), the Ministry of Agriculture, or Statistics Indonesia (BPS)?” asked Abbas.
The data should be vivid to reduce misinformation which may lead to issues in this country. Indeed, a political year is about to come, so the police should properly be made.
The government’s policy may not harm domestic farmers.
“The rice import policy will bring huge impacts on farmers’ life. The rice price will drop because the people will choose to buy the imported rice,” said Anwar Abbas.
Furthermore, the Agricultural Consultant of the Muhammadiyah Council for Community Empowerment Syafii Latuconsina agreed with Anwar Abbas that the data validation is crucial.
“I think the government doesn’t have valid data. Crop failure occurred, but it doesn’t mean that Indonesia lacks rice stocks. What happened was that the Bulog failed to buy the domestic rice due to the fuel price hike and rice price change,” Syafii said.
The government was supposed to issue price flexibility. “However, it’s late because the rice price in the market has risen,” said Syafii.
