Cultivating rice in Indonesia
General
about Indonesia
The Indonesian archipelago has been an
important trade region since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China
and India Spice
Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and
a half centuries of Dutch
colonialism, Indonesia Indonesia
Across its many islands, Indonesia Indonesia
The following table shows some important informations about
Indonesian country and people:
Capital
(and largest city) |
||
Official
language(s)
|
||
Ethnic groups (2000)
|
Javanese 40.6%
Sundanese 15% Madurese 3.3% Minangkabau 2.7% Betawi 2.4% Bugis 2.4% Banten 2% Banjar 1.7% other or unspecified 29.9% |
|
from the Netherlands
|
||
-
|
17 August
1945
|
|
-
|
27 December
1949
|
|
-
|
1,919,440 km2 (15th)
735,355 sq mi |
|
-
|
4.85
|
|
-
|
2011 estimate
|
237,424,363 (4th)
|
-
|
2011 census
|
237,424,363[3]
|
-
|
Density
|
123.76/km2 (84th)
323.05/sq mi |
2011 estimate
|
||
-
|
Total
|
|
-
|
Per capita
|
|
2011 estimate
|
||
-
|
Total
|
|
-
|
Per capita
|
|
Gini (2011)
|
36.8
(medium)
|
|
HDI (2011)
|
▲0.617 (medium) (124th)
|
|
Currency
|
||
Agriculture
in Indonesia
Agricultural map of Indonedia
The agricultural environment in Indonesia is divided largely
by geography and altitude, with intensive food crop production occurring on the
inner islands (Java, Bali, Lombok and Madura) while less-intensive perennial
cropping systems (estate crops of oil palm, sugar, rubber, cocoa, coffee, tea)
predominate on the outer islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan Sulawesi, and Papua.
Natural soil fertility is highest on the inner islands, while lower-fertility
acid soils predominate on the outer islands. This is a relic of the geologic
parent material for the soils and the degree of weathering they have been
subject to over the millennia. IRRI scientists indicate that rice was first
introduced to Indonesia
The volcanic origin of the archipelago provided vast areas
of fertile soils which support both dense tropical rainforest and agriculture.
Average annual rainfall in the country is roughly 3,175 millimeters (125
inches), but can exceed 6,100 millimeters (240 inches) in the mountainous
highlands. The combination of copious rainfall and fertile soils make many
areas of the islands ideally suited for farming.
Total agricultural land in 2010 was estimated by the
Indonesian government (BPS) at roughly 40.7 million hectares, or 22 percent of
the total land area in the country. The major crops produced in Indonesia
include, but are not limited to, rice, palm oil, sugarcane, cassava, coconuts,
corn, bananas, rubber, mangoes, oranges, chillies, sweet potatoes, soybeans,
and peanuts.
The following table shows the Area Harvested (ha), The Yield
(kg/ha) and the Production (tonnes) of the main Crops in Indonesia 2010:
Crops
|
Area
Harvested (Ha)
|
Yield
(Kg/Ha)
|
Production
(tonnes)
|
|||
Arecanuts
|
135,400
|
Im
|
466.0
|
Fc
|
63,100
|
Im
|
Bananas
|
98,000
|
F
|
59,332.4
|
Fc
|
5,814,580
|
|
Beans, dry
|
258,529
|
1,129.8
|
Fc
|
292,084
|
||
Beans, green
|
165,400
|
Im
|
5,347.6
|
Fc
|
884,500
|
Im
|
Cashew nuts,
with shell
|
309,900
|
Im
|
562.4
|
Fc
|
174,300
|
Im
|
Cassava
|
1,182,600
|
20,216.9
|
Fc
|
23,908,500
|
||
Chillies and
peppers, green
|
237,520
|
5,609.5
|
Fc
|
1,332,360
|
||
Cloves
|
274,800
|
Im
|
207.4
|
Fc
|
57,000
|
Im
|
Cocoa beans
|
1,026,000
|
*
|
789.6
|
Fc
|
810,100
|
Im
|
Coconuts
|
3,080,700
|
Im
|
6,704.8
|
Fc
|
20,655,400
|
Im
|
Coffee, green
|
1,166,000
|
*
|
687.0
|
Fc
|
801,000
|
*
|
Fruit Fresh
Nes
|
117,000
|
Im
|
10,290.6
|
Fc
|
1,204,000
|
Im
|
Fruit,
tropical fresh nes
|
209,300
|
Im
|
10,478.3
|
Fc
|
2,193,100
|
Im
|
Groundnuts,
with shell
|
620,828
|
1,255.8
|
Fc
|
779,607
|
||
Kapok Fruit
|
138,500
|
Im
|
1,695.3
|
Fc
|
234,800
|
Im
|
Maize
|
4,143,250
|
4,432.4
|
Fc
|
18,364,400
|
||
Maize, green
|
107,100
|
Im
|
3,155.0
|
Fc
|
337,900
|
Im
|
Mangoes,
mangosteens, guavas
|
135,000
|
F
|
9,729.9
|
Fc
|
1,313,540
|
|
Natural
rubber
|
3,064,600
|
Im
|
909.8
|
Fc
|
2,788,300
|
Im
|
Nuts, nes
|
210,600
|
Im
|
592.1
|
Fc
|
124,700
|
Im
|
Oil palm
fruit
|
5,000,000
|
F
|
17,200.0
|
Fc
|
86,000,000
|
F
|
Onions, dry
|
109,468
|
9,575.7
|
Fc
|
1,048,230
|
||
Pepper (Piper
spp.)
|
103,900
|
Im
|
541.9
|
Fc
|
56,300
|
Im
|
Rice, paddy
|
13,244,200
|
5,014.4
|
Fc
|
66,411,500
|
||
Soybeans
|
661,711
|
1,372.4
|
Fc
|
908,111
|
||
Sugar cane
|
420,000
|
F
|
63,095.2
|
Fc
|
26,500,000
|
F
|
Sweet
potatoes
|
181,048
|
11,327.4
|
Fc
|
2,050,810
|
||
Tea
|
107,800
|
*
|
1,391.5
|
Fc
|
150,000
|
F
|
Tobacco,
unmanufactured
|
251,300
|
Im
|
776.0
|
Fc
|
195,000
|
Im
|
Cereals (Rice
Milled Eqv + (Total)
|
17,387,450
|
A
|
3,603.8
|
Fc
|
62,660,870
|
A
|
Cereals,Total
+ (Total)
|
17,387,450
|
A
|
4,875.7
|
Fc
|
84,775,900
|
A
|
Coarse Grain,
Total + (Total)
|
4,143,250
|
A
|
4,432.4
|
Fc
|
18,364,400
|
A
|
Fibre Crops
Primary + (Total)
|
165,120
|
A
|
564.8
|
Fc
|
93,253
|
A
|
Fruit excl
Melons,Total + (Total)
|
662,800
|
A
|
22,431.7
|
Fc
|
14,867,762
|
A
|
Oilcakes
Equivalent + (Total)
|
9,524,739
|
A
|
561.6
|
Fc
|
5,348,621
|
A
|
Oilcrops
Primary + (Total)
|
9,531,239
|
A
|
2,830.4
|
Fc
|
26,977,326
|
A
|
Roots and
Tubers,Total + (Total)
|
1,497,156
|
A
|
18,308.1
|
Fc
|
27,410,090
|
A
|
Vegetables
Primary + (Total)
|
1,091,995
|
A
|
8,778.9
|
Fc
|
9,586,496
|
A
|
Note: * = Unofficial figure | [ ] = Official data | A = May include
official, semi-official or estimated data | F = FAO estimate | Fc = Calculated
data | Im = FAO data based on imputation methodology | M = Data not available
Source:FAOSTAT | © FAO Statistics Division 2012 | 28 May 2012
The following table shows agricultural food imports
2009 in Indonesea:
Rank
|
Commodity
|
Quantity (tonnes)
|
Value (1000 $)
|
Unit value ($/tonne)
|
1
|
Wheat
|
4,655,290
|
1,316,110
|
283
|
2
|
Cake of Soybeans
|
2,324,280
|
1,019,550
|
439
|
3
|
Soybeans
|
1,314,620
|
621,281
|
473
|
4
|
Sugar Refined
|
1,279,810
|
517,028
|
404
|
5
|
Flour of Wheat
|
646,859
|
223,286
|
345
|
6
|
Cotton lint
|
570,902
|
765,359
|
1341
|
7
|
Feed Supplements
|
491,873
|
352,068
|
716
|
8
|
Garlic
|
405,138
|
166,372
|
411
|
9
|
Maize
|
338,798
|
77,841
|
230
|
10
|
Tangerines,
mandarins, clem.
|
188,956
|
166,835
|
883
|
11
|
Cassava Starch
|
166,813
|
49,577
|
297
|
12
|
Apples
|
153,512
|
128,458
|
837
|
13
|
Gluten
Feed&Meal
|
151,628
|
90,242
|
595
|
14
|
Cake of Rapeseed
|
146,765
|
35,313
|
241
|
15
|
Dregs From
Brewing;Dist.
|
145,443
|
31,628
|
217
|
16
|
Rice Milled
|
137,413
|
57,523
|
419
|
17
|
Groundnuts
Shelled
|
132,069
|
130,821
|
991
|
18
|
Sugar, nes
|
125,245
|
57,782
|
461
|
19
|
Sugar Raw
Centrifugal
|
113,413
|
57,128
|
504
|
20
|
Rice Broken
|
107,292
|
35,065
|
327
|
Production and import food in Indonesia
Cultivating rice in Indonesia
Stagnating Rice
Production Ensures Continued Need for Imports
Indonesia ranks 3rd in the world in regards to
total rice production, but has also been the world’s 7th largest rice importer
over the past 5 years – on average requiring over 1.1 million tons of imports
per year. Of the top ten global rice producing nations, only the Philippines and Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia
This imbalance has the potential to weigh
heavily on domestic food prices and the international rice market anytime
adverse weather causes significant declines in seasonal rice production. The
fact that Indonesian rice production has stagnated during the past 5 years when
beneficial rainfall has been the norm is a real concern. In recognition of
these underlying trends, government authorities announced new program
initiatives in 2011 to create a 10 million ton rice surplus (milled basis) by
2015. However, rice industry observers indicated there are no quick or easy
solutions to producing increased growth rates at the farm-level today in Indonesia Jakarta investigated the rice production environment in Indonesia
Rice Growing Environment
Rice yields in Indonesia
Rice is by far the most important food crop
grown in the country today, with cultivated area estimated by USDA at 12.2
million hectares in 2011, accounting for 30 percent of total agricultural land.
Rice is grown by approximately 77% of all farmers in the country (25.9 million)
under predominantly subsistence conditions. The average farm size is very small
at less than 1 hectare, with the majority of farmers cultivating landholdings
between 0.1 - 0.5 hectares in size. Rice production is heavily concentrated on
the islands of Java and Sumatra , with nearly
60 percent of total production emanating from Java alone. When crisscrossing
the island of Java
Rice is cultivated in both lowland and upland
elevations throughout Indonesia Sulawesi - the 3 islands together
contributing about 89% of total national rice production.
There is also a small amount of rice grown on
the outer islands under a traditional shifting cultivation system using slash
and burn techniques. This crop is usually associated with small farmers in
remote areas who are establishing a mixed plantation of rubber trees and food
crops. The existing forest is cut and burned, making way for rubber tree
seedlings to be interplanted with upland rice and corn crops.
Irrigation
Irrigational rice yield in Indonesia
Irrigation is the foundation for stable
high-yielding rice farming systems throughout the world, and Indonesia
By the 1960’s it was reported that roughly 60
percent of the country’s irrigation systems were in disrepair. Major government
programs to rehabilitate existing irrigation infrastructure and construct
additional schemes began in 1969. During the following 40 year period Indonesia
It is estimated that 40-50% of all irrigation
systems nationwide are currently in disrepair, causing limitations to
agriculture. In addition, the growth rate of new irrigation system development
is also slowing compared to previous decades, as government budgets are largely
targeted toward major crop subsidy programs for fertilizer and seed. As a
result, neglected investment in irrigation infrastructure repair and
development will impose serious impediments to the future potential for rice
production growth in Indonesia
According to Indonesia ’s
Ministry of Public Works in 2012, approximately 84% of total rice area in Indonesia
FAO estimates that approximately 70% of total
lowland rice area produces 2 rice crops each year. About 60% of total rice
production occurs in the first crop cultivated during the wet season
(November-March), while 2 smaller harvests occur during the dry season.
According to FAO’s AQUASTAT country database, the
majority of rice sown in all 3 seasonal crops is irrigated either from large
technical schemes managed by the government, regional systems managed by local
governments, or community level systems operated by farmers themselves. Severe
drought is not a common occurrence, but can become a major region-wide problem
during strong El Nino weather events. The last severe El Nino occurred in 1997,
causing crop yields to decline approximately 5%. Farmers typically have
significant flexibility to sow crops outside the normal planting window, when
short-term dryness caused by delayed onset of normal seasonal rains occur.
Delayed plantings usually do not incur significant yield reductions in the rice
crop, but can lead to grain quality problems when later-than-normal harvests
coincide with particularly rainy weather.
Historical Rice Area and Yield
Area and yield of rice in Indonesia
A series of very beneficial developments from
1960-2000 helped Indonesia Indonesia ’s
total rice area increased roughly 5.25 million hectares or 76% between 1961 and
2010, primarily through gradual expansion of double and triple cropping on
Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi . The development
of new irrigation schemes, including a sharp increase in the construction of
major reservoirs, enabled many areas to intensify the rice cultivation cycle
and harvest more than one crop per year. By 2011, more than 50% of total rice
area is routinely cultivated during the dry season (2nd and 3rd crops), a feat
which was simply impossible before these major national infrastructure
developments.
Indonesia’s crop researchers also contributed
to decades of rapid growth by developing and releasing 190 high-yielding (HYV)
wetland and 30 high-yielding dryland or rainfed varieties since the 1960’s.
Their pioneering work in isolating improved varieties enabled the country to
more than double the national average rice yield by 2010, increasing it by an
estimated 135%. Indonesian farmers have been fairly proactive in adopting new
varieties, with an estimated 85% of all farmers cultivating HYV’s. However, it
is also true that the most popular HYV rice variety sown in 2011, called IR-64,
was first released in the 1960’s. IR-64 currently covers over 31% of total
national rice area, and farmers have been cultivating and harvesting this
legacy HYV cultivar for over 40 years. This demonstrates that there is
significant resistance to new seed technology, with many years required to wean
growers off previously adopted favorites. The second most popular variety,
called Ciherang, currently covers 22% of total sown area and was first released
in 2000. It is the first variety in decades to successfully begin to displace
major crop acreage once devoted to IR-64.
Overall consumption and use of fertilizer in Indonesia
In the years from 1960-1980 the majority of
national rice area would still have been devoted to older traditional
varieties, rather than HYV’s – and the dramatic improvement in overall national
yield during those 2 decades is a testament to rising fertilizer use throughout
the country. Data from the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA)
show that total national fertilizer consumption increased from 144,000 tons in
1961 to 4.47 million tons in 2009, or a 3,000% increase. FAO has documented
that roughly 52% of all fertilizer consumed in Indonesia
The government actively sponsored the creation
of a domestic fertilizer industry to guarantee adequate supply, subsidized
fertilizer costs to farmers, and developed a national crop extension service to
provide outreach to growers unfamiliar with new varieties or fertilization
techniques and usage. After 1990, total rates of fertilizer consumption
stagnated as the government dramatically reduced both its fertilizer subsidies
and rural extension services. This combination of policy and budgetary changes
targeted at agriculture resulted in a protracted period of stagnating rice
yields (1987-2000) and food security problems, with unusually high levels of
rice imports required from 1994-2002. A shift in government policy reinstating
substantial fertilizer subsidies in 2002, however, reversed the trend once
again and enabled further growth in national rice yields.
Despite all the historical progress, current
observers of Indonesia
Government Rice Goals and Initiatives
The Indonesian government is grappling with the
issue of food security by promulgating policies it hopes will spur significant
increases in food crop production and encourage greater consumption of non-rice
food staples such as cassava and corn. So far, however, there is no evidence
that a concrete plan of workable solutions has been developed or initiated at
the provincial level, or that the population is interested in consuming
significantly more cassava. The importance of these issues was apparent in a
February 2012 Forum on Food Security held in Jakarta, when the President
reiterated publicly that the country would continue to be vulnerable to future
food crises as long as they depended too heavily on rice as the national staple
food. In other words, it appears Indonesia
In regards to these issues, what has the
government proposed? A few of the major initiatives are outlined below.
a) Rice transmigration scheme 2009
In November 2009 the newly appointed
Agriculture Minister announced that a key priority of his ministry in its first
100 days was to revive the Suharto-era transmigration scheme wherein large
numbers of farmers from Java would be provided land in the outer islands to
grow rice. The Agriculture Minister instructed the National Land Agency (BPN)
to find ways to make as much as 6.0 million hectares of suitable land available
to rice farmers. There has been no concrete plan developed or land made
available as of 2012.
b) Merauke Integrated Food and Energy
Estate (MIFEE) 2009
The government is targeting a remote section of
the province of Papua
c) System of Rice Intensification (SRI)
expansion 2011
The Agriculture Ministry intends to increase
the area under the Integrated Crop and Resource Management (ICM) program from
100,000 hectares in 2011 to 1.5 million in 2015. This implies expanding the
program from an estimated 250,000 participant growers in 2011 to 3.75 million
in 2015. The ICM program couples a new lower-cost rice farming system called
SRI with integrated pest management (IPM) to significantly increase rice
yields. Rice cultivated under SRI techniques generally uses less seed, water,
and fertilizers – yet produces 20-40 percent higher average crop yields. The ICM
program relies heavily on dedicated agronomic and pest-management support and
education from a limited number of qualified crop extension officers. Serious
problems at the farm-level have arisen in the past few years as growers attempt
to adapt to this new farming technique. Difficult water and pest management
issues can arise, reducing yields and eliminating the benefit of the improved
system. Farmer's adoption of this technique is expected to be slower than
projected, if only because the availability of qualified and knowledgeable
extension staff is in such critically short supply throughout the major
irrigated rice growing regions in Indonesia.
d) State-owned companies commercial
rice production scheme 2012
In January 2012 the government announced plans
to spend US$998 million to create 100,000 ha of new rice fields in the province of East Kalimantan Sumatra were unable and unwilling
to boost their output, in part due to funding constraints. A land feasibility
study has not been completed nor has any infrastructure development preceded
the announcement. Without a single hectare of farmland licensed or converted to
rice paddy land (most of the targeted areas are forested lands) as of March
2012, it is unlikely that 1.0 MMT of rice will be produced by 2013 – let alone
anywhere near the 15.4 MMT increase required by 2014 to produce a 10.0 MMT
milled rice surplus.
Conclusions
The agricultural sector in Indonesia
A host of serious and somewhat intractable
inter-related issues are expected to limit future rice production growth rates
in Indonesia
1-A growing population of largely uneducated
poor rural farmers with low capital supply.
2-High population pressure on every hectare of
available land in prime rice growing areas.
3-Limited off-farm non-agricultural employment
opportunities for capital accumulation.
4-Declining trend in average farm size – small
and getting smaller owing to traditional inheritance practices.
5-Annual loss of paddy land owing to land
conversion to non-agricultural use (commercial, industrial, urban) is high -
approximately 100,000 ha per year.
6-Rice varieties from the 1960's are still
dominant with 31% of total rice area sown to one variety, and slow uptake of
new HYV’s.
7-Majority of government agricultural budget
allocated to fertilizer and seed subsidies despite low gains in crop yields.
8-Critically low budget at central and
provincial government levels dedicated to irrigation infrastructure development
and repair.
9-Critically low number of highly qualified and
educated crop extension and pest management officers.
10-Lack of performance incentives for
government employees who initiate and implement major agricultural programs,
including crop extension at the local and provincial level.
As outlined in the article above, the
combination of stagnating crop area and yields in Indonesia has the capacity to
derail any hope the country has in the near future of achieving rice
self-sufficiency. Population growth, estimated at 1.47% in 2010 (BPS), is now
outpacing the growth rate of domestic rice production – inferring that the
scale of annual imports will grow until the country can revive its rice sector.
Area growth is hampered by historically low government investment in irrigation
infrastructure rehabilitation and development, while yields are constrained by
the generally slow uptake of new HYV’s and low capital availability (general
impoverishment) of the average rice farm household. As in many Southeast Asian
nations, the easy advances in crop production growth have already been achieved
thanks largely to the introduction of improved varieties, increased
fertilization, and greater access to irrigation. Reigniting growth in the
Indonesian rice sector in coming years may require far greater investment,
education, and development than the government has the budgetary latitude to
support. In any case, the prospect of rice self-sufficiency over the coming
decade seems increasingly difficult if not impossible to achieve.
Current USDA area and production estimates for
grains and other agricultural commodities are available on IPAD's Agricultural
Production page or at PSD Online.
Year
|
Area
Harvested (Ha)
|
Yield
(Kg/Ha)
|
Production
(tonnes)
|
|
1961
|
6,857,000
|
1,762.3
|
Fc
|
12,084,000
|
1965
|
7,327,000
|
1,770.8
|
Fc
|
12,975,000
|
1970
|
8,135,080
|
2,376.3
|
Fc
|
19,331,000
|
1975
|
8,495,100
|
2,629.7
|
Fc
|
22,339,200
|
1980
|
9,005,070
|
3,292.8
|
Fc
|
29,651,900
|
1985
|
9,902,290
|
3,941.8
|
Fc
|
39,032,900
|
1990
|
10,502,400
|
4,301.8
|
Fc
|
45,178,800
|
1995
|
11,438,800
|
4,348.7
|
Fc
|
49,744,100
|
2000
|
11,793,000
|
4,400.7
|
Fc
|
51,898,000
|
2001
|
11,500,000
|
4,387.9
|
Fc
|
50,460,800
|
2002
|
11,521,200
|
4,469.1
|
Fc
|
51,489,700
|
2003
|
11,477,400
|
4,542.6
|
Fc
|
52,137,600
|
2004
|
11,923,000
|
4,536.5
|
Fc
|
54,088,500
|
2005
|
11,839,100
|
4,573.9
|
Fc
|
54,151,100
|
2006
|
11,786,400
|
4,620.1
|
Fc
|
54,454,900
|
2007
|
12,147,600
|
4,705.2
|
Fc
|
57,157,400
|
2008
|
12,309,200
|
4,894.8
|
Fc
|
60,251,100
|
2009
|
12,883,600
|
4,998.5
|
Fc
|
64,398,900
|
2010
|
13,244,200
|
5,014.4
|
Fc
|
66,411,500
|
Note: [ ] =
Official data | Fc = Calculated data
Source: FAOSTAT
| © FAO Statistics Division 2012 | 28 May 2012
References
