JakartaPost/Reuters-Apr 1
It was still pitch-black outside when Sutinah made her way to a local police station early one morning last month, hoping to avoid queues and take advantage of a government scheme offering affordable rice. Even though dry weather fuelled by El Nino has led to a rice shortage and sent prices to record highs, the 52-year-old from the East Java town of Pasuruan was still shocked to see hundreds of likeminded residents already waiting patiently in line. “By the time we got here it was already busy, we still had to queue. We had no other choice because the price of rice in the market is very expensive,” said Sutinah. The mother-of-two queued for two hours to buy two 5 kg bags of rice for Rp 102,000 ($6.51) – a saving of about 50,000 rupiah compared to supermarket and market prices. Indonesia was self-sufficient in rice in the 1980s before farmland was used to build housing for the booming population, which now stands at more than 270 million people. Despite this, more than 90 percent of Indonesian families still consume rice every day, providing more than half their daily calories. Indonesia’s per capita annual rice consumption stands at about 95 kg (210 lb) – much higher than the average yearly consumption of other carbohydrates like corn, sweet potato, potato and cassava, said Rajendra Aryal, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s representative in Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Such is the importance of the staple to Indonesia’s economy, culture and society that high food inflation contributed to the downfall of strongman President Suharto in 1998. Last year was relatively hot due to the El Nino weather pattern, and a prolonged dry season in parts of Indonesia saw rice production fall by around 18 percent. Indonesia is due to enter the dry season again next month. Read more at:
