Agricom.id, JAKARTA – Commission IV Indonesian Legislators rejected the plans of the government to do 1 million tons of rice import which would be allocated by Perusahaan Umum Badan Urusan Logistik (Perum Bulog). Indonesian Legislators told that the rejection is from the food commodity management that should prioritize the domestic production.

“Commission IV does not agree to rice import plan for this is a loss for the farmers,” Vice Chairman of Commission IV, Hasan Aminuddin said, Monday (15/3/2021), as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

He thought that the government should commit to fulfill the food needs through the increasing production in the domestic. He also urged Perum Bulog to increase the synchronization and coordination with other ministries and institution, namely to absorb (the rice).

“If Bulog does maximal absorption, I think, there would be no rice issue,” he said.

Member of Commission IV, Daniel Johan thought that the food is available in this year and it does not need import. It is known from the data in Central Bureau of Statistic saying that the rice production in 2020 reached 31,33 million tons or increased about 21,46 thousand tons or 0,07 percent compared to 2019 that reached 31,31 million tons.

"In May the farmers in many regions in Indonesia would be in crops. We urged that the government should have partisanship for the farmers not to do import when they are in harvest,” he said.

He also hoped that every stakeholder should commit to prioritize the domestic production so that the people would not be difficult in this hard time because of the continuous Covid-19 pandemic. (A2)