Heaptalk, Jakarta — President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) inspected the corn harvest in Sumbawa Regency, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Province, on Thursday (05/02). During the agenda, Jokowi emphasized the importance of maintaining price stability when there is excess supply.
“The price that was previously Rp7,000 has now fallen to Rp4,200. It is good for breeders but not good for farmers. Maintaining a balance such as this is not easy,” said the President to the media crew after the inspection. Jokowi also urged farmers to scale up corn productivity in each region. This is essential to provide profits and increase farmers’ income.
“For example, here we use tough seeds. The results I asked for were 7-8 tons. If the tough ones are the same, it could be 7, 8, or 9 tons. Hence, the production has to achieve that number, but some are under 5 tonnes. Well, the price of R4,200 doesn’t cover the production cost,” said the President.
Jokowi also hopes that corn prices can continue to increase and that there will be a balance between supply and demand. He has also instructed his staff to carry out calculations properly. He said, “Yesterday we did the calculations, and we pushed, but if the supply is too big, the demand is still the law of the market, and prices will go down due to oversupply.”
Apart from that, President Jokowi also instructed his staff to encourage industrialization in the agricultural sector. This is one of the government’s efforts to maintain price stability. “We will continue to encourage this downstream to make prices more stable. If there is an industry, prices will be more stable. But if it’s far from here, it has to be taken to Java. From here, it has to be taken to West Java. It costs a lot of transportation,” concluded President Jokowi.
