REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) expressed greater optimism in the country's ability to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production as compared to soybean or other basic commodities.

"Seen from the import data, rice imports turns out to be less than five percent of the available one, while soybean is approximately 60 to 70 percent," Budi Santosa, Bappenas coordinator for the food security section, stated here on Friday.

Santosa explained that based on a research conducted by his team, rice self-sufficiency can be realized due to the annual increase of two percent in its production.

He pointed out that in 2014, the rice production in Indonesia reached 43.3 million tons whereas only 152 thousand tons, or about 0.35 percent of the national rice stock was imported.

Santoso pointed out that in the past decade, the largest rice imports were recorded only in 2011 at 2.75 million tons, or about 6.32 percent of the domestic production.

Soybean imports in 2014 reached 1.3 thousand tons, and the domestic production was 892.6 thousand tons.

He stated that the largest soybean import was also recorded in 2011 that reached 2.1 million tons, or around 71.04 percent of the total domestic production.

Santoso stated that corn is the other food commodity with the highest recorded imports besides soybean.

"With large imports of soybean and corn, these commodities that we consume every day are not likely to come from domestic production," he noted.

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