New SOE To Handle Rice Shortage Problem

Posted on Dec 13, 2011

Dahlan Iskan, the State Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister said that the Indonesian Government is intended to form a large state-owned enterprise that is capable of handling food with a capacity of 5 to 10 times the capacity of the current SOE in charge of staple food handling, Bulog.

“This SOE will either be formed from the merger of already existing state-owned Agro-industry, or will be formed from scratch,” Dahlan said after the discussion titled “Reducing Intervention Through Bond” at the Coordination Meeting of the Ministry of SOEs and at Pertamina Building on Monday.

New Bpdy to handle staple food

According to Dahlan, for the initial phase, this new SOE will be assigned a task of creating 100,000 ha of rice fields in 2012, then 1 million hectares by 2014.

The Ministry of SOEs has been coordinating with related agricultural SOE such as Sang Hyang Sri, Pertani, Bulog and Pusri. This plan, added Dahlan, is aimed to support government program, the Cooperation Based Food Productivity Improvement Corporation (GP3K). “These Agro-industries will continue to coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture,” he said.

Dahlan said, his Ministry is currently conducting research to be able to create a kind of roadmap for the establishment of state-owned enterprises that focus on the staple food problems, especially rice.

“We want Indonesia to have a SOE that capable of overcoming various obstacles regarding the national food. This project is rather ambitious but very possibly to be realized,” he said.

He explained that Indonesia is an agricultural country that has a large enough land and should not be trapped on a food crisis.

“With a focus on the handling of rice and creating new paddy fields, it is expected that Indonesia no longer import rice,” he said.

With the decreasing of land allotment for paddy fields, it is feared that a rice crisis which could happen at any time could lead to political crisis. He added that the ministry plans already submitted to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

“The president gave full support, because it is appropriate that Indonesia as an agricultural country has a large state enterprise that specially handles rice” he said.