Strategic Food Reserves

KOMPAS/DIONISIUS REYNALDO TRIWIBOWO

President Joko Widodo together with Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo saw the location of a planned food estate program in  Kapuas Regency, Central Kalimantan on Thursday (9/7/2020).

When President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo assigned Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto to clear land in Central Kalimantan in the context of building strategic food reserves, many questioned why the task was given to the Defense Ministry.

Hopefully an explanation regarding the strategic food reserves (CSP) from an historical/empirical perspective will help us understand. Our history records that when Sultan Agung prepared himself to attack the Dutch in Batavia, the Mataram king built a rice production network from the center of Mataram to Karawang. Therefore, when we refer to this concept, CSP is basically the concept of military logistics. According to information, the concept of CSP also exists in imperial dynasties in China and Japan.

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President Jokowi, who wants to prevent a food crisis, is working with Defense Minister Prabowo, who wants to strengthen defense in the food sector. If one day there is a war, where will our soldiers and their families and the public at large get food? Defense Minister Prabowo is trying to fill the gap by building a national food granary in Central Kalimantan.

Institutional crossing

After the war for independence, both the military and civilians took care of their own food logistics. In 1966 it was integrated into the National Logistics Command (Kolognas). Because Kolognas was dissolved, in 1967 an institution was formed to take care of military and civil food logistics, namely the State Logistics Agency (Bulog). Bulog\'s tasks were then integrated again with food/rice development as a price stabilizer.

Moreover, Bulog also reduced the circulation of money at the beginning of the month by distributing rice rations to PNS (civil servants)/TNI (Indonesian Military)/Polri (National Police).

Bulog’s operation was subsequently linked to Bank Indonesia, where at the time of the harvest, credit was disbursed through Bulog to improve farmers\' livelihood and in famine siphoning off money from the community by selling through the market operation. Moreover, Bulog also reduced the circulation of money at the beginning of the month by distributing rice rations to PNS (civil servants)/TNI (Indonesian Military)/Polri (National Police).

The logistics integrated system of military, civilians and agricultural development became one of the important factors in the achievement of rice self-sufficiency in 1984-1993. Bulog, which was established by President Soeharto, is a non-departmental government institution (LPND) that can run the government\'s food logistics business. On the other hand, Pertamina as a state company is allowed to regulate a portion of the upstream downstream related to oil and gas.

After the reform, the positions of regulator and operator were separated. For Pertamina, the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKK Migas) was formed, while for Bulog it was forgotten.

President Soeharto formed the Office of the State Minister for Food Affairs (Menpangan) 1993, actually in the context of preparing the separation between the regulator and operator.

At the time of the 1997/1998 monetary crisis, the integrated system that was built for 30 years was weakened in stages and the Bulog institution was nearly dissolved. For this reason, State Minister for Food Affairs AM Saifuddin along with two of his staff members met President Habibie who succeeded Soeharto, to explain Bulog\'s duties and functions. Finally, President Habibie agreed that Bulog would take care of matters related to non-markets.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

A worker transports rice from Pamanukan who arrives at Cipinang Rice Main Market, East Jakarta, Thursday (21/5/2020).

Perhaps because of understanding Bulog\'s above-mentioned task, President Habibie approved the State Minister for Food Affairs\'s proposal to use the special market operations program (OPK) in Bulog to distribute subsidized rice to groups of people who still had little purchasing power, but were unable to buy rice in general market operations. For people who did not have purchasing power, according to the permanent procedure they were served by the Social Affairs Ministry. As was known, the OPK program was a forerunner to the raskin (rice for the poor subsidy)/rastra (social aid for poor people from rice assistance) program.

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Furthermore, President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued Presidential Instruction No. 9 of 2001 concerning Establishment of Rice Policy which assigned Bulog to absorb farmers\' production. The absorption results were used to strengthen reserve stocks, and the stocks were used to guarantee distribution to the poor and those vulnerable to food insecurity. The presidential regulation on rice was a milestone in the integration of policies between upstream, middle and downstream again.

In 2004, when the free rice import policy began to be limited, the impact could be seen from the rice prices which began to move up. Therefore, the Coordinating Economic Minister, Boediono, stipulated the existence of government rice reserves (CBP) of 1 million tons to overcome the price volatility in rice.

In its realization, the government only provided a budget of Rp 2.5 trillion to buy Bulog rice reserves, then the proceeds from the sale of CBP went directly into government accounts. From this case the operational financing of Bulog for distribution of raskin and for CPB began to be distinguished.

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Sago flour is sold at Mardika Market, Ambon City, Maluku. Sago flour is an ingredient for making papeda.

In its latest development on 27 November 2019, the government issued a new scheme of procurement and stock management schemes which led to the end of the integrated rice policy system, raskin/rastra distribution program was replaced by a coupon system. With this new scheme, basically the government physically no longer has CBP because it only pays the difference in the cost of rice and the selling price by Bulog.

Strategic food reserves

To be distinguished, the orientation of "strategic food reserves" increasingly gives emphasis on the position of reserves, while the orientation of "food strategic reserves" is more towards the type of food. The type of food can change according to the increase in population income. National defense in the military sense, according to Wikipedia, is a joint force (civil and military) organized by a country to guarantee the integrity of its territory, protection from people and/or the safeguarding of their interests.

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According to the Indonesian General Dictionary (1994), the notion of reserves is something that is provided and will be used in the future. Thus, the meaning of CSP is the food supply which is available in the community and is controlled by the government for the needs of tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and other needs in framework of protecting the people and the state to protect their interests.

From the understanding and interpretation above, the strategic food reserves can be described as follows. First, quadrant 1 food reserves (line 1), namely food reserves that must be available to be consumed immediately which is available in the residents\' household. In normal condition usually these food reserves are for around 10 days, but in abnormal condition, such as when a pandemic strikes, the reserves can increase to 20-30 days.

Second, quadrant 2 food reserves (line 2), are food reserves that are in the distributor to meet the demand of household buyers. The amount of reserves is estimated at the number of household demand to maintain supply continuity.

Third, food reserves in quadrant 3 (line 3), are food reserves that are in the processing/milling equipment, supplies existing in the farmers are in the form of grain and in the rice fields that will soon be harvested, and supplies in Bulog. Inventories in quadrant 3 can reach 2-3 months for market demand and others.

Fourth, food reserves in quadrant 4 (line 4), in the form of hidden food reserves located in forests and swamps, in people\'s farms and plantations, in the yards, in city parks, on the side of highways and toll roads, on the embankment of the rivers and valleys, et cetera.

During a guerrilla war in Vietnam against the United States, food reserves available in the forest were used.

Previously, in the forests there were still a variety of tubers, such as uwi, gembili, suweg, gadung, and garut, which could be used by the community in the event of a long drought. During a guerrilla war in Vietnam against the United States, food reserves available in the forest were used.

Regarding our strategic food reserves (CSP), first, the utilization of national food storage areas should not only be used for CSP quadrant 3 (cultivation of rice, maize, cassava), but it also needs to consider quadrant 4 food reserves, namely for forest food reserves. Types of plants are adapted to local agro-climate condition.

Second, it turns out there are many things that still need to be thought out and done together. What is clear is that we must think about CSP management, both by the community, local governments and the central government. City parks, urban roads, roadsides, and the sides of toll roads should be considered to have the potential to be partly planted with crops that produce food, such as breadfruit, coconut, dates, and jackfruit.

Third, the largest CSP is found to be in the community. Therefore, a conducive policy support needs to be developed, unless the government really wants to take over everything.

Sapuan Gafar, Secretary of the State Minister for Food Affairs 1993-1999, Alumnus of National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) KRA XVII 1984