Agricom.id, JAKARTA – In the continuous meeting to anticipate the main daily needs (28/4), President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) told his ministers to monitor the availability and distribution of food in many regions in Indonesia.

Jokowi also told that from the main daily food stocks in Indonesia, there were deficits of some commodities in many provinces, such as, rice is deficit in 7 provinces, corn is deficit in 13 provinces, cayenne pepper is deficit in 19 provinces, and egg is deficit in 22 provinces.

That is why he needed the quick calculation to know the detail what regions are in deficit and surplus.

As what President told, Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL) in many occasions said that, his side keeps maintaining the food availability, namely 11 main daily needs. He also said that his side keeps intensifying the coordination with other ministries, institutions, and related sides to maintain the availability and the distribution.

“The most important thing is the distribution should run well. Identify the regions for we have the maps. This is what President Jokowi told so that every one of us in the ministries cooperates to cover the deficit. It means that there is no lock-down, no isolation, no block to distribute the food,” he said in Jakarta (30/4/2020) as in the official written statement to Agricom.id.

Based on the food availability estimation nationally released by ministry of agriculture showed that the rice would be surplus until June 2020 reaching 6,4 million tons, corn would be surplus reaching 1,01 million tons, onion would be too reaching 330.384 tons. The other eight commodities, such as, garlic, big cayenne pepper, cayenne pepper, cow meat, egg, sugar, and cooking oil would be the same.

The estimation is based on the monthly production and the consumption, and the calculation of the available stocks.

The rice in the end of March 2020 reached 3,45 million tons – in Bulog reaching 1,4 million tons, in the millings reaching 1,2 million tons, in the traders (sellers) reaching 754 thousand tons, and in lumbung pangan masyarakat (LPM) reaching 2.939 tons. The numbers are not the stocks in the society, such as, the household, and horeka.

The production in April – June 2020 would be about 10,5 million tons, within the prediction to decrease about 4% of the production estimation released by central bureau of statistic (CBS). If the numbers minus the needs in April-June, about 7,6 million tons, and added by the stocks in the end of March, in the end of June 2020, there would be surplus  about 6,4 million tons.

Meanwhile Head of Badan Ketahanan Pangan (BKP), Ministry of Agriculture, Agung Hendriadi said that 7 provinces which are in deficit just like what the President told would be covered by the other 27 provinces which are in surplus.

"The stocks in the early of April reached 3,45 million tons and enough to fulfill the needs in the deficit regions,” he said.

He also mentioned that his side keeps monitoring the food availability in many provinces to know what commodity is in deficit or gets more expensive and would formulate the intervention.

“There would be always in minus and surplus. The surplus would be in the production centers, while the deficit would be in the production centers but they could not fulfill the consumption. The most important thing is that the government would guarantee the transportation and distribution so that the food would be available in every province,” he said after doing video conference to know the availability and distribution of food together with the head of food agencies in Indonesia, Thursday (30/4/2020).

He thought that his side keeps stabilizing the food stocks to be equal in many reigons, such as, by helping the cost of distribution.

He gave example, last week, (23/4) his side facilitated to distribute curly cayenne pepper from Central Java to West Sumatera and Jambi.

“Central Java and East Java are harvesting cayenne pepper and chili. Last week we facilitated the distribution to West Sumatera and Jambi. Based on the food map, North Sulawesi, Maluku, North Maluku, and Papua are in deficit too. We would help to distribute it,” he said.

What ministry of agriculture has done to distribute is to absorb what the farmers produced in the pandemic situation so that they keep having spirit to plant and produce.

He also mentioned that in the pandemic of corona virus (Covid-19) which is in the fasting day too, his side keeps doing bazaar and encouraging the pasar mitra tani in each province to optimize the delivery order via online.

By these, he hoped that the food is available and the people could get what they need. (A2)