REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- State-owned logistics board (Bulog) has set itself a target of purchasing 3.85 million tons of rice from local farmers, its chief Sutarto Alimoeso said.

The Bulog president director said here on Sunday that the board's domestic rice procurement last year was 3.62 million tons.

He said that Bulog has to channel about 3.4 million tons of rice annually. If there is no distribution of raskin (rice for the poor) in the 14th, 15th and 16th batches, it means that the 3.5 million tons will be enough.

"However, we have to remain standby if in any time we are asked to channel the 14th, 15th and 16th batches of raskin which is why we decided to purchase 3.85 million tons this year," he said.

Soetargo said that currently Bulog had begun to procure rice from farmers. Since early this month, Bulog has procured 150 thousand tons of rice from new rice formers.

"Procurement has been running since early this month, but the gain purchased by the public is still small," he said.

He said that "procurement had been running well but its achievement was not yet as expected, because currently was not yet a harvest season," he said.

In response to the government's target to absorb farmers' rice, the Bulog chief said that he was convinced that the target was achievable, if rice production at home was good and experienced a surplus.

He said that rice production in 2012 as well as in 2013 was good.

The Bulog chief, however, expressed concern if rains continued to fall like now, it would affect national rice production with impact on the failure in the rice procurement target.

Referring on the rice stocks, the Bulog chief said his agency had a stock of 2.1 million tons, enough to meet demand for rice until September 2014.

He said here on Sunday that Bulog would provide 100 tons of rice for each of the district/municipal city governments to meet the need of their residents who were affected by natural disasters such as floods, landslides, mount eruption and drought.

For provincial governments whose areas were affected by natural disasters, Bulog will provide 200 tons of rice to meet the local need in the regions.

"There is no need to wait for the issuance of a disaster alert status. If a local government finds shortage of rice in its region, it can directly ask rice from Bulog," Alimoeso said on the sidelines of the Eleventh anniversary celebration of Bulog here on Sunday.

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