DENPASAR ~

Government policy to import rice indicates a disregard for the interest of farmers and will cause adverse effects on rice prices, an observer has said.

“Rice imports will show that the revitalization of the agriculture sector to achieve rice self sufficiency, as has been declared by the president, seems merely rhetorical,” agriculture observer Gede Sedana said on Saturday.

Sedana, the dean of Dwijendra University’s Faculty of Agriculture in Denpasar, Bali, noted that until now, farmers have not been assisted by government policy. Sedana remarked that the policy to open the country to rice imports does not favor farmers and is inconsistent with the spirit of the revitalization of the agriculture sector.

“The farmers will be greatly harmed by imports of rice, because they will damage the domestic rice market and lower the income of farmers,” he noted.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla has said rice imports are always an option, especially when the government has to deal with shortages of rice.

“The tap is always open, in case our production does not meet demand and it is required to make up for the deficit,” the vice president stated in his office last Friday.

Citing an example, he pointed out that in case there is a shortage of rice during the Islamic fasting month in June, it is possible that the country will import rice.

However, the vice president added that the government had yet to study the agricultural reports collected from the fields.

“We will wait and see until after the end of May, because a grand harvest usually lasts until May,” he affirmed.

The vice president noted that after the harvest, the government will be able to determine whether there is a shortage in the national rice stock and whether imports will be needed.