A study of increasing production of basic food crops in Indonesia

The Government of Indonesia is greatly concerned with the need to increase food production especially rice as the preferred staple food. Several policies and programmes, intended to fill the gap between production and consumption, have been attempted. The import of rice caused a heavy drain on the foreign exchange earnings of Indonesia in the 1970s. These policies included intensification programmes in the form of InmaSj Bimas and Insus. The Bimas intensification programme induced improved cropping management along with increased fertilizer and insecticide use on irrigated land planted with the new highly responsive seeds. Intensification programmes were also started for non-rice food crops in the early seventies and were to be expanded rapidly during Reipelita III. Although rice and other food crops are produced in all regions in Indonesia, there exist big differences in the production patterns and potential among regions. Moreover, the distribution of production among regions varies from year to year due mainly to fluctuations in weather conditions. This study has two main objectives. Firstly, it tried to explain aggregate increases in basic food crop production by setting out a framework for assessing the contribution of area and yield to output growth in Indonesia since the 1950s. Indices of aggregate output of six basic food crops (rice, maize, cassava, sweet potatoes, peanuts and soybean) were analyzed for 25 provinces out of 27 provinces in Indonesia. Secondly, especially for rice production, the study examined the changes in yields over time by province and tried to explain changing yields in terms of irrigation improvement and fertilizer use. Fertilizer intensity was measured by the amount of fertilizer applied per hectare of cultivated areas. Irrigation contribution to output increase was examined by calculating the values of the irrigation ratio (i.e. the proportion of irrigated wet rice land to total wet rice land) and the values of irrigation rehabilitation ratio (i.e. the proportion of already rehabilitated rice land to total wet rice land). The study also discusses the present food policy of the Indonesian Government and issues for the future