Strategic Policy Options to Develop Maize and Feed Production in Indonesia

Maize is the most popular ingredient of manufactured feed in the world, particularly in the tropic region. In Indonesia, maize is a major component of feed, accounting for about 51 percent of feed ingredient. Efforts to substitute some other crops for maize in Indonesia are likely unsuccessful (Tangendjaja, 2003). Maize is also the second important food crop after rice. It was indicated by the percentage of area planted to maize, relative to total area planted for food crops. Kasryno (2002) reported that area planted to maize was about 19 percent of the total area planted to food crops during the period of 1970-2000. Rice occupied about 61 percent of the total area planted to food crops. Another 20 percent was dedicated for other food crop plantation (palawija) such as soybean, mungbean, peanut, cassava, and sweet potato. In the last three decades, the FAO data showed that maize production has shown a substantial growth from 2.83 million metric tons in 1970 to 10.89 million metric tons in 2003. This increase was mainly attributed to the adoption of improved technology, especially high yielding varieties, including hybrid varieties, resulting in a higher productivity. The rapid growth of production, however, failed to meet the domestic demand, causing a rapid increase in net import. In the 1969-1975 periods, Indonesia reached self sufficiency in maize, with the indices of 1.02, to 1.26 (Swastika, 2002). Since 1976, the net import was increasing from 0.05 million metric tons in 1976 to 0.60 million metric tons in 1996 and reached its peak of 1.26 million metric tons in 2000. To obtain self-sufficiency on maize for both food and feed, a breakthrough seems necessary. This study aims to identify potential, opportunity, and constraints of maize and feed production system, and to formulate strategic policy alternatives to develop maize and feed production