Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto highlighted that the government has readied several steps to handle the food crisis, such as price stabilization to social protection spending.
“We are striving to stabilize the food prices by maintaining food commodities and then expedite spending on social protection as well,” Hartarto noted at the Mid-Year Economic Outlook 2022 event here, Tuesday.
In addition to price stabilization and social protection spending, the government has also increased the supply of food commodities in line with the supply disruption, he remarked.
This aligns with President Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi’s) direction to increase food resilience in the production of several important commodities, such as rice, corn, and soybeans.
The Presidential Staff Office also encouraged research on sorghum as an alternative to rice amid the current global food crisis.
Indonesian researchers are starting to develop superior varieties of sorghum that are more durable and with higher productivity.
Moreover, the government will strengthen the role of the State Logistics Agency, Bulog, and the Food Agency to support efforts in controlling the domestic food inflation.
Another effort is to improve logistics distribution to maintain the supply of food commodities, such as corn, in various regions in Indonesia, the minister stated.
He later emphasized the importance of inter-regional synergy to ensure no disruption in food supply and to monitor food prices at an affordable level.
“Inter-regional cooperation is important to maintain and monitor the food supply, food prices at an affordable level, and safe distribution, with good communication with the public,” he noted.
The Statistics Indonesia (BPS) had earlier noted a volatile increase in inflation for food components in July 2022 that had reached 11.47 percent (yoy), or the highest since January 2014 when it was recorded at 11.91 percent (yoy).
Source: Antara News