A study of increasing production of basic food crops in Indonesia
Date
1982
Authors
Susanto, Walsari Natasuwarna
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University
Abstract
The Government of Indonesia is greatly concerned with the need to
increase food production especially rice as the preferred staple food.
Several policies and programmes, intended to fill the gap between production
and consumption, have been attempted. The import of rice caused a heavy
drain on the foreign exchange earnings of Indonesia in the 1970s.
These policies included intensification programmes in the form of
InmaSj Bimas and Insus. The Bimas intensification programme induced
improved cropping management along with increased fertilizer and insecticide
use on irrigated land planted with the new highly responsive seeds.
Intensification programmes were also started for non-rice food crops in the
early seventies and were to be expanded rapidly during Reipelita III.
Although rice and other food crops are produced in all regions in
Indonesia, there exist big differences in the production patterns and
potential among regions. Moreover, the distribution of production among
regions varies from year to year due mainly to fluctuations in weather
conditions.
This study has two main objectives. Firstly, it tried to explain
aggregate increases in basic food crop production by setting out a framework
for assessing the contribution of area and yield to output growth in
Indonesia since the 1950s. Indices of aggregate output of six basic food
crops (rice, maize, cassava, sweet potatoes, peanuts and soybean) were
analyzed for 25 provinces out of 27 provinces in Indonesia. Secondly,
especially for rice production, the study examined the changes in yields
over time by province and tried to explain changing yields in terms of irrigation improvement and fertilizer use. Fertilizer intensity was
measured by the amount of fertilizer applied per hectare of cultivated
areas. Irrigation contribution to output increase was examined by
calculating the values of the irrigation ratio (i.e. the proportion of
irrigated wet rice land to total wet rice land) and the values of irrigation
rehabilitation ratio (i.e. the proportion of already rehabilitated rice land
to total wet rice land). The study also discusses the present food policy
of the Indonesian Government and issues for the future.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Collections
Source
Type
Thesis (Masters sub-thesis)
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
Open Access
License Rights
Restricted until
Downloads
File
Description