September 28, 2010

Indonesian industry group warns state on food scarcities threat

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) reminded the government on food scarcity threat resulting from food distribution constraints and global climate problems that would disturb harvests.

"Extreme climate change has caused harvest failures in a number of food crops agricultural centres in the country. Besides, the lack of supporting infrastructural facilities, outside Java in particular, has also hampered the smoothness of goods distribution," Acting KADIN chairman Adi Putra Darmawan Tahir said.

Tahir said these problems could cause national food supplies to drop significantly. "It can be seen from the fact that food prices after the recent fasting month has not shown any signs of going down," he said.

An agricultural observer of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture Bustanul Arifin said the extreme world climate change had disturbed the country's production system. "I have no data available, but I strongly believe that production disturbance has been taking place everywhere," Bustanul said.

He said that at least pest attacks had been taking place in various areas and it was estimated that the pest attacks were due to the climate change. State-logistics board Bulog should take anticipatory steps soon by filling all its warehouses with stocks.

In the meantime, technical ministries such as the ministry of agriculture and the ministry of trade should be required to carry out monitoring tasks.