Government Corrects Rice Database

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

A farmer harvests rice in paddy fields managed by the Association of Farmers\' Groups Ngudi Rukun in Sorosutan village, Umbulharjo, Yogyakarta, Thursday (11/10/2018). The area of paddy fields in the village has decreased from 12.97 hectares to 8 ha in the last two years owing to the conversion of paddy fields into buildings. The farmers’ groups association is trying to help preserve the remaining fields and during this year\'s harvest, it has been able to produce 11.9 tons of IR64 rice per hectare.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – After going through a long process that began in 2015, the government has finally announced its rice database, comprising a paddy field area, harvest area and rice production, using new calculation methods. The move has been praised in the hope of ending chronic debates on rice data.

New figures announced include a reduction of paddy field area from 7.75 million hectares in 2013 to 7.1 million ha in 2018. Meanwhile, potential harvest area may reach 10.9 million ha and production may reach 56.54 million tons of dry paddy (GKG), or equal to 32.42 million tons of rice, in 2018.

The new figures were announced after a limited Cabinet meeting led by Vice President Jusuf Kalla in Jakarta on Monday (22/10/2018). The meeting discussed an improved methodology for rice production calculation using the area frame sampling method in place of layered data-gathering from the local agriculture agency up to the Agriculture Ministry.

In attendance at the meeting were Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution, Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Sofyan A Djalil, Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) head Suhariyanto, Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) head Hasanuddin Zainal Abidin, National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Lapan) head Thomas Djamaluddin and Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) head Unggul Priyanto.

Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman was not present at the meeting. Agriculture Ministry Food Security Agency head Agung Hendriadi said that Amran was attending a work meeting at the House of Representatives.

“We have concluded that available data has not been aligned with real conditions on the field since 1997,” Kalla said.

There is a huge gap between data resulting from old and new calculations. The old data from the Agriculture Ministry was gathered from compiled data from all agriculture agencies nationwide. The new data was sourced from Lapan’s satellite imaging. The data is then processed through multiple verifications involving BIG, the BPPT, BPS and the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry.

“We needed three years to improve the data. Now, we have the most updated data,” said Kalla, adding that he felt guilty for not making any corrections when he served as vice president from 2004 to 2009.

Data accuracy

BPS head Suhariyanto said that, since 1997, many government agencies had actually been aware that available rice production data had not reflected actual conditions. However, improvements required

time. In the past three years, BPS worked together with the BPPT, the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry, Lapan and BIG to develop the area frame sampling method.

The new methodology is expected to provide a much more accurate picture on national rice production. Accuracy on rice production data has been a bane for the government, as it involves rice availability in markets. This affects rice price, which is elastic against poverty rate as the largest portion of spending among the poor is for rice purchase.

Related to the data correction, the Agriculture Ministry’s crops director general, Sumarjo Gatot Irianto, refused to give any statement. Earlier this month, he claimed that potential harvest area might reach 15 million ha with a production of 83.03 million tons of dry paddy this year.

Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) professor of agriculture Dwi Andreas Santosa said that he appreciated the government’s correction of its rice production data, which had often been a source of debate. He also said that the gap between production data and real conditions on the field had been usual since at least 2000. In recent years, the gap has widened.

“The new corrected figure is more in line with data from several institutions. This means that it is closer to the real condition,” Andreas said. (LAS/JUD/MKN)