NTB to Become a National Rice Barn
Friday, 03 July, 2009 | 13:17 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) is now following East Java and South Sulawesi to become a national rice barn. The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) for NTB stated that NTB can produce 300,000 tons of rice while local demand is only 150,000 tons.

The excess is expected to meet rice needs in other provinces.

During first half of 2009, NTB sent 40,000 tons of rice to North Sumatra, Jambi, and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

Mahmud Zainal, Bulog's head for public services in NTB, explained that Bulog buys up the excess rice and sends it to outside NTB.

“So rice prices at the farmer level can be maintained,” he said, Thursday (2/7).

Earlier on Wednesday (1/7), head of the NTB Central Statistics Agency, Mariadi Mardian, said that rice production in 2008 reached 1,750,677 tons or an increase of 14.7 percent compared to 2007 which was only 1,526,347 ton.

SUPRIYANTHO KHAFID