"By God's willing, the food stock will be sufficient," he said in Jakarta.
He added that the government is continuing to maintain adequate national food availability in various ways, such as agricultural production acceleration, food diversification, and rice aid distribution.
The government will also increase the Government Food Reserve (CPP), which consists of 11 basic commodities, namely rice, corn, soybeans, onions, chilies, poultry meat, eggs, ruminant meat, sugar, fish, and cooking oil, he added.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has issued Presidential Regulation Number 125 of 2022 concerning the Implementation of Government Food Reserves (CPP) to maintain food availability in Indonesia.
The assignment and management of government food reserves is being carried out through Bapanas, a task that can be assigned to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), Adi explained.
He assured that the CPP program will continue to run amid the threat of bad weather and the El-Nino phenomenon, which have been predicted to last until February.
To maintain the stability of food prices, especially of rice, as well as inflation, the government has also launched a rice food assistance program under which it is distributing rice aid to beneficiary families (KPM), Adi said.
The program is making use of the Government Rice Reserves (CBP) in line with Presidential Regulation Number 125.
According to Adi, the assistance is being provided to low-income communities, namely KPM, based on data provided by the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture on the Acceleration of Extreme Poverty Elimination (P3KE).
Under the assistance, 10 kilograms of rice is being distributed to each KPM per month.
Adi said that the assistance is being distributed from early 2023 to March 2024 and is targeting 22 million KPM. The assistance will be extended from May to June this year, depending on state budget availability.
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Translator: Maria Cicilia G P, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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