Transcript The Global Food and Financial Crisis: Lessons and the Way

The Global Food and Financial Crisis:
Lessons and the Way Forward
Food Crisis as the Result of Disobedience to Peasants*)
Prepared by:
Aliansi Petani Indonesia/API
(Indonesian Peasant Alliance)
*) case study done by VECO & Bina Desa, 2008
Facts related to agriculture during the crisis of
food and financial, 2007-2008:
• > 10,000 hectares per year of agriculture land converted to
industrial zones, housing/real estates, and other non
agricultural sector.
• The conversion keeps escalating since the GOI’s policies
give way easier to big industries such as big plantations,
housing developers, and other industries to expand their
business (e.g. Law No.4/2004 on water resources,
Presidential Decree No65/2006 on the use of land for the
sake of public interest, Law No.18/2003 on plantation, and
Law No.25/2007 on investment). Those regulations do not
protect food and agriculture.
• The rice liberalization has changed the rice production,
consumption, and distribution patterns at global and
gave impact on national level. Therefore, Indonesia
becomes food net importer.
• In 10 years (1996-2005) Indonesia spent Rp.14.7 trillion
($ 14.7 billion) per year to import food, while BULOG
(the body that used to deal with logistics) has been
privatized under the LoI of IMF, it is no longer control
to obtain rice and set the price. It’s only control 7% of
rice trade in domestic, while the 93% goes to the
private (foreign) hands, including Cargill.
• Due to giving the food over to the market mechanism,
Indonesia experienced crisis of rice in 1998, crisis of
milk, cooking oil and wheat in 2007, and again crisis of
rice in 2008. Kupang Pos (December 2007) reported
that at least 11,250 people (adult) and more than
55,000 children under 5 in East Nusa Tenggara Province
alone experienced malnutrition during 2005-2006.
• The crisis of food has also shown how free market
failed to provide food to people, in the contrary the
number of poor people and the hungry and those who
suffered from the sickness related to the lack of food
were arose since food liberalization in place.
What has government done to respond
the food crisis?
The GOI set the “food price stabilization policy” in
February 2008, included among others:
• To increase the subsidized rice for poor families in
2008 (from 10 kg per households per month to 15 kg to
19.1 million poor families; subsidized the rice price
Rp.1.600 per kg (one third of the average of market
price);
• Reduce the tariff of imported rice from Rp.550/kg to
Rp.450/kg;
• To increase rice production in 2008/2009 by providing
certified and good seeds, and subsidized fertilizer;
• To reduce the tariff of imported soybeans and wheat to
zero;
• To increase the production of soybeans and corn at
national through the higher the productivity and
expand the areas of planting;
• To enhance local grains and tubers production;
• To give soft loan with the subsidy to the interest rate to
the micro food producers up to Rp.2.000.000 per
business unit for 50,000 micro enterprises.
• Promote CSR (corporate social responsibility) to get
involved in food security through community
empowerment
• etc.
Food crisis in the eyes of peasants
• Food crisis is when they hardly buy white rice and when
the price hike from Rp.4,000 per kg (low quality) to
Rp.5,500 up to Rp 6,000. The average consumption of rice
is 600 gr per day, or 2.5 kg per day for a family with 4-5
adult members. Therefore, they should provide at least 75
kg of rice per month, equal to Rp. 450,000 ($ 45). The hike
of rice price will be very hard to them.
• Food is rice, not maize, dry land paddy (brown rice), sweet
potato, or other tubers from their yards. They have got
used to eat rice since it was introduced through Green
Revolution in 1994.
Lessons Learned:
Sustainable Agriculture as alternative production system
against the lack of food and to combating poverty:
A case study on organic rice, an incentive for small scale
farmers.
• Food (rice) should not be treated as commodity. Food
is basic right for every person, therefore it is mandate
to states to protect, fulfill, and respect it in order to
give access to everyone to have healthy, sufficient,
nutritious and sustainable food. Government has to
protect and give incentives to peasants in terms to
achieve food sufficiency for all.
• The starvation in the province showed that the food policy
is only on paper. The substance of food problems has not
been resolved yet. Local production of food need to be
tackeld institutionally politically and economically.
Decision makers have to shift their interest not only in
mega project such as Jatropha and corn as biofuel which is
not proved as a good efforts to overcome famine. In fact,
those projects are wiping away the development of local
food since the land and plantation owned by the people are
projected to biofuel plantation
• Mutual relationship between peasants and consumers
should be developed in order to assure the production of
healthy nutritious food, adequate, and sustainable, as well
as in active involvement of women in producing,
consuming, and distributing it.
• Proactive involvement of several NGOs, such as Bina
Desa and others developed sustainable agriculture
(organic) together with peasant organizations in rural.
Starting from production, consumption and
distribution it is based on knowledge, experience, and
the innovation of men and women in collaboration
with nature. With this practice, the farmers are able to
reduce the input cost significantly for they can provide
it by themselves by using local natural resources.
• The marketing should benefits to the farmers,
since the principal of organic rice is when the
production has exceeded the needs of the family of
farmers. Then they develop the market that brings
benefit to the consumers earn healthy food (social
benefits). Through cooperatives with fair trade
system they distributed the organic rice to urban
areas.
• These efforts bring motivation to the peasants to
keep producing healthy food sustainably. While the
group of peasants can raise fund from the earning
to strengthen the institution and to support the
operational of the groups.
Thank You