"Something may be wrong with our system, so that we must import rice," he told newsmen on the sidelines of his visit to Kubang Puji village, Pontang subdistrict, Serang district, Banten province, on Wednesday.
He said he had asked the director general of infrastructure of the ministry of agriculture about the fact of Indonesia`s relatively-high rice production at this present harvest time.
Aburizal Bakrie argued that the government should purchase local farmers` rice if their stocks were sufficient.
"We buy the rice stocks of our farmers because it can help improve their welfare," said the Golkar Party leader and former cabinet minister.
The government`s efforts to improve the local farmers` welfare could be made by rising its pricing level when buying the farmers` stocks, he said.
"What we can expect the government or State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to do is to increase the purchasing prices for our farmers` rice stocks," he said.
About imported rice, Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said recently that the government had given the green light to Bulog to import 1.5 million tons of rice in a bid to maintain food resilience.
"In principle we provide the flexibility to Bulog, because it has to maintain rice stock of 1.5 million tons by making the procurement from within and outside the country," Mari said.
According to the trade minister, rice imports were also intended to control fluctuating prices.
Bulog President Director Sutarto Alimoeso himself said that the realization of rice imports by Bulog would be conducted no later than March this year.
Since the beginning, the government had permitted Bulog to import 1.5 million tons of rice to maintain food resilience because his agency did not want to have rice shortages, he added.(*)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
