Jakarta December 14 2023: Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has asked the military to help farmers boost rice production as the onset of El Niño and export curbs from top shipper India tighten supply of the staple grain.
The president asked the military to assist with the monitoring of rice planting and the distribution of subsidized fertilizer, while urging farmers to speed up sowing to take advantage of recent rainfall. El Niño, which typically brings dry conditions to parts of Asia, had delayed the start of seasonal rains.
“I ask agricultural instructors and military supervisory officers in villages to guide farmers from planting through harvesting to make sure all goes well and production can increase,” Widodo, known as Jokowi, said in the key rice growing region of Pekalongan, Central Java, on Wednesday.
India ramped up restrictions on rice exports from late July to contain domestic prices ahead of an election next year, upending the market and fueling higher inflation in major buyers including Indonesia. The El Niño weather pattern is threatening to become one of the most intense events in history, which will likely impact rice production across Asia from Thailand to Vietnam.
Earlier this month, Indonesia’s agriculture minister renewed a memorandum of understanding with the military chief to use idle lands owned by the armed forces for planting rice — a deal that was first signed in 2011.
