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Maize in Indonesia is
the second most important cereal crop after rice with about 19 per cent of the
total area planted to food crops during 1970-2000.
Around 89 per cent of maize is grown on rain-fed lowland and dry land
with erratic rainfall and low fertility. This means that maize is mainly grown
in marginal areas with low productivity. This agro-ecosystem is also an
environment where poor farmers, with smallholdings and limited resources, are
living. Their farms are spread over remote areas with poor communication
facilities and little access to information.
Moreover, in East Java, East Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, South-East
Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya, maize is consumed as a staple food as well as rice.
In general, maize
consumption in Indonesia can be grouped into four categories namely:
(1) direct human consumption, (2) feed industry, (3) food industry, and
(4) other usage (seed, loss, etc.). FAO data indicates that the share of maize
demand for direct food to the total domestic demand declined dramatically from
about 68 per cent in 1970 to around 7 per cent in 2001. In contrast, maize
demand for feed increased steadily at an average rate of 6.4 per cent per year
during 1970-2001, although during the Asian monetary crisis (1997-2001) it
declined by nearly 5 per cent per year. Increases and decreases in maize demand
for the feed industry are highly determined by the performance of the poultry
industry. During the crisis, the poultry industry collapsed, thus the demand for
feed and therefore maize declined significantly.
Ilham et al. (2002) and
Simatupang et al. (2003), have shown positive income elasticities of demand for
chicken meat as well as for eggs. They indicate that the demand for chicken meat
and eggs will continue to increase as long as per capita income continues to
rise and as a result, maize demand for feed (as a derived demand of livestock
products) will automatically increase.
Over the same time
period maize demand from the food industry experienced the highest growth in
both its volume and share. Demand, in terms of quantity, dramatically increased
from 0.38 million tons in 1970 to just less than 6 million tons in 2001, or grew
at an average rate of 9.34 per cent per year during 1970-2001. The share of
maize demand from the food industry sharply increased from 14.82 per cent in
1970 to more than 58 per cent in 2001. It is likely that maize is no longer
considered as an “inferior good”, when it
is processed into
manufactured food within the food industry. The increasing demand for maize as a
raw material for feed and food industries provides a good market for maize.
Unfortunately, this market opportunity is not well utilized by poor farmers for
several reasons. First, they are not able to adopt modern technology using
hybrids, mainly due to cash capital constraints. Second, there has been very
limited research and development attention to improve yield as well as the
nutritional content of local maize varieties that are planted and used for
direct human consumption by poor farmers.
The Government of
Indonesia has undertaken many efforts and initiatives to increase maize
production. Mass guidance for secondary crop production (Bimas Palawija) in 1973
and the GEMA PALAGUNG program in 1998, aiming at substantially increasing maize
production, together with rice. From 1950-2000, at least 35 composite varieties
and 10 hybrids have been released by Indonesian Research Centres.
However, these policies, until now, have been unable to substantially
increase farmers' income and national maize production to meet domestic demand.
In order to increase
domestic maize production and to improve the on-farm income of poor maize
farmers, there should be some policy efforts, such as:
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Create and encourage
a fair partnership between feed mills or food factories and maize farmers
especially through poor farmers' organizations in maize production using
HYVs.
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Provide 'field
school' to small scale maize processing
in order to provide added value to maize farmers.
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Prioritize the
improvement of local maize varieties, in terms of yield and nutritional
content through research and development.
Recently, the Indonesian
Centre for Food Crops' Research and Development
initiated high priority research on Quality Protein Maize (QPM). QPM is a
new variety of maize with a protein content of more than double, which makes it
a good source of vegetable protein
for the poor who use maize as a direct food.
Written by Dewa K.S. Swastika, Senior Researcher,
Indonesian Centre for Agricultural Socio Economic Research and Development,
Bogor, Indonesia.
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