"Indonesia has so far been dependent on rice imports from Thailand, but this dependence is proving dangerous because around 1 million hectares of agricultural lands in Thailand are now inundated," Henry said.
Therefore, he said, Indonesia should put an end to its reliance on the international market to meet its food needs.
Henry warned that compared to other countries in Southeast Asia, many parts of Indonesia still lacked food insecurity because they still relied of food supplies from Java island.
According to him, Indonesia should abandon its tendency to let different parts of the country specialize in the production of certain food commodities such as designating Sumatra as a producer of palm oil, Gontalo as a producer of corn, South Sulawesi as a producer of rice.
In relation with rice imports, Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said recently the government would look for new rice exporting countries following the threat of harvest failure in Thailand because of the recent floods in the country.
"I have just been informed that Thailand will no longer be able to sell or export rice to Indonesia, and therefore we are trying to find an alternative rice supplier," Gita said.
Meanwhile, Prof Didin S Damanhuri of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) said recently that Law No.7/1996 on food should be revised if Indonesia wants to achieve food sovereignty.
Didin said the law was thought to emphasize only the availability of food but it did not clearly stipulate how the food would be kept available and who the suppliers could be.
He also said food sovereignty would be impossible to achieve if the farmers` welfare was not improved.
(Uu.O001/HAJM/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
