Beware of Declining Rice Production

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

A trader measures rice on Sunday (13/102019) at Kebayoran Market, South Jakarta. The market price of rice is relatively stable, even though the harvest season has ended in drought in a number of rice production centers. Traders said that the IR64 rice was selling for Rp 10,000 per liter.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Farmers have harvested 8.99 million hectares of paddy fields from January and September to yield 26.91 million tons of rice, according to data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS).

That figure is lower than the harvest area of 9.53 million hectares during the same period last year, which yielded 28.48 million tons of rice. The decline in the harvest area and production yield was due to a delay in the planting season, both the rendeng (primary) and the gadu (secondary) planting seasons, mainly caused by water shortages. The drought had also caused a decline in land productivity and harvest failures in some areas.

Kompas met farmers, farmers groups, local agriculture officials, rice millers and rice traders in the production centers in West Java, Central Java and East Java from last Wednesday to Saturday, who confirmed the BPS data.

The Karawang agriculture office, for example, recorded a year-on-year decrease in the areas planted with rice, from 131,450 hectares (ha) in January-September 2018 to 120,124 ha in January-September 2019, producing 840,873 tons of dry unhusked rice (GKP) in September 2019, or 60 percent of this year’s GKP target of 1.4 million tons. Meanwhile, the Indramayu agriculture office reported that the regency produced 1.49 million tons of GKP, or 82 percent of this year’s GKP target of 1.8 million tons.

KOMPAS/MELATI MEWANGI

Village elders greet each other on Sunday (10/13/2019) during the ngala indung pare Nyalin traditional ceremony in Dukuhkarya hamlet of Rengasdengklok district, Karawang regency, West Java. The ceremony is held once a year at the end of a harvest to welcome the new planting season.

The drought also affected farmers in Cirebon, Brebes, Tegal, Surakarta and Banyuwangi, delaying planting at non-irrigated as well as irrigated rice fields.

The Banyuwangi agriculture office said that the harvest area during this year\'s primary planting season was projected to be 62,985 ha, a decline from than 69,324 ha in 2018 and 74,815 ha in 2017.

Many farmers suffered losses due to soaring production costs, decreased crop yields and even crop failure due to drought. Suwanda, 55, a farmer in Putat village of Sedong district, Cirebon, for example, produced only 1.5 tons of unhusked rice from his 1 ha rice field, whereas he usually produced 3 tons of unhusked rice. "I only made Rp 3 million (US$214.5), lower than my capital, which reached more than Rp 7 million," he said.

Ero Sumarto, 48, a farmer in Kamarang village of Greged district, Cirebon regency, suffered a crop failure, losing about Rp 10 million in capital he spent on land management, wages and pesticides. He did not produce a single grain of rice from his 1 ha farm.

It is feared that the impact from the drought will worsen because of the delay this year in the arrival of the rainy season. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) forecast a delayed start to the rainy season according to the 30-year average (1981-2010) in 74 percent of the seasonal zones in Indonesia (253 zones).

A total of 69 of the 342 seasonal zones (20.2 percent) will enter the rainy season in October, while 161 zones (47.1 percent) will only begin to see rain in November and 79 zones (23.1 percent) in December. The rest will enter the rainy season in January-March 2020. (Kompas, 27/9/2019)

Price increase

The price of rice has begun to increase as supply decreases over the last four months. The BPS survey on 1,847 transactions in 28 provinces shows that the farm gate price of GKP was Rp 4,905 per kilogram in September, up 12.6 percent compared to the average price in May. The mill gate price of medium-quality rice increased from Rp 9,143/kg to Rp 9,301/kg during the same period.

The increase in rice prices corresponds with the annual cycle of price increases in November-February.

KOMPAS/ANGGER PUTRANTO

A man harvests rice on Sunday (13/10/2019) in Benelanlor village of Kabat district, Banyuwangi, East Java. The current price of unhusked rice is Rp 6,000 per kilogram, an increase from Rp 5,000/kg three months ago.

Johar Karawang Market Rice Traders Association chairman Sri Narbito projected that the market supply of rice would decrease even more in November to hit a low in December.

During the major harvest, 1,000 tons of rice per day was supplied to Johar Rice Market in Karawang. However, the supply volume was decreasing and was estimated to reach only 400-500 tons per day in October 2019. "This year\'s dry season is hotter and longer than previous years," said Sri.

A similar situation was seen at the Martoloyo Rice Market in Tegal municipality, Central Java, with an estimated 20-50 percent decline in the rice supply.

"Some farmers are reducing their grain supply to us because of a decline in harvest yield. Some of their rice crops failed due to drought," said rice mill owner Ali, 33, at the Martoloyo Rice Market.

According to Tulus Budiyono, the Central Java chairman of the Rice Millers and Traders (Perpadi) Association, an average 50 percent decline in rice distribution to mills had occurred evenly across almost every region of Central Java.

However, some rice traders and local officials said that the rice stock was sufficient to meet demand. East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa said that nearly 34,000 ha of rice fields in the province had been affected by drought, with about 5,000 ha of rice fields failing to produce a harvest. However, the drought-affected rice fields only accounted for 1.8 percent of the 1.87 million ha that had been planted with rice this year.

East Java Agriculture and Food Security Agency head Hadi Sulistyo said that despite the drought, the province’s rice production was still expected to yield a surplus of 3.2 million tons by the end of the year.

South Sulawesi has two regions with different planting and harvest seasons, so planting and harvesting are conducted throughout the year.

South Sulawesi Governor Nurdin Abdullah said that his administration had long anticipated the drought and had readied drought-resistant seeds, fixed irrigation reservoirs and prepared other measures.

"South Sulawesi has two regions with different planting and harvest seasons, so planting and harvesting are conducted throughout the year," he said.

According to the disaster expert Amien Widodo of the 10 November Institute of Technology (ITS), the impact of drought on food security should not be underestimated. If left unchecked, surplus rice production would fall and lead to a crisis.

(MEL/IKI/JUD/XTI/WER/BRO/RWN/GER/REN)