Anticipation Through food Independence

The impact of rising cooking oil prices in early 2022 has not been successfully recovered. Various policies have been tried by the government to minimize the impact. The last thing to do is the policy of providing bulk oil that is sold to the public, but this is also temporary. Lack of hygiene and short shelf-life have caused bulk oil prices to be greatly affected by fluctuations in CPO prices at the world level. This is the reason for the government to replace bulk oil into packaged oil. Of course, this change in packaging will affect the selling price.

World Chaos

The chaos that took place between Russia and Ukraine had a tremendous impact on the world, including Indonesia. The cessation of exports since the end of 2021 on several commodities, especially food by Russia and Ukraine, has resulted in an increase in the prices of several food and energy commodities. Apparently, what the two countries did had resulted in several other countries such as Argentina, Algeria, Egypt, and India also doing the same thing, including Indonesia. Indonesia has banned exports of palm oil and palm kernel oil (liputan6.com/12 May 2022).

What about Jambi?

How big is the impact on society? Based on BPS data, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in general has continued to increase since February 2022 with an average increase of 1.28 points. The highest average increase occurred in the food, beverage and tobacco groups with an increase of 2.88 points. Followed by the Transportation group which experienced an average increase of 1.48 points. The significant increase in aviation fuel prices is considered the main cause of the skyrocketing air ticket prices. Citing Pertamina's data, the price of avtur at Soekarno Hatta Airport since January-June has increased by 55.38 percent. Jambi Province's dependence on supplies from other regions makes the market price also depends on the smooth distribution, so that here a big role for the government is needed in maintaining the supply chain of commodities that are needed by the community. It should be borne in mind that it is not only households that feel the impact of rising prices, but also business actors operating in sectors that mostly use food as input for their businesses, such as the food industry. They haven't finished cleaning up yet because the impact of rising cooking oil prices has forced them to increase their selling prices, and yet another attack on the price hikes of several food commodities including chili, flour, eggs and onions has put their businesses in danger of going out of business.

Several Programs As Solutions

The provision of social assistance for people who are classified as poor and vulnerable to poverty is the fastest way to maintain people's purchasing power so that the supply chain of goods will also continue to move. However, until now, the problem that often occurs in the field in the aid program is that misdirected aid is still being found. The database that is continuously updated periodically will facilitate the government's work in providing assistance so as to minimize the negative impacts caused. Short-term assistance is of course only temporary, so a long-term sustainable program is needed to reduce regional dependence on foreign goods. Maybe Jambi can accelerate the implementation of the Food Estate Program which is one of the priority programs of the Ministry of Food Crops that prioritizes optimization of peat or swamp land which has been successfully implemented in two provinces, namely Central Kalimantan and North Sumatra. Considering that Jambi also has a large area of ​​peat land or ex-oil palm plantations. The multiplier effects of the realization of the Food Estate program are quite diverse, including increasing farmers' income and employment as farm laborers, new farmers or other new economic actors around the location. Starting a program, of course, requires hard work. Assistance in various stages as well as maintaining the quality and smooth availability of raw material inputs such as fertilizers and seeds. Equally important is maintaining the stability of crop prices. Don't let it happen again that farmers throw away their crops because the market price is too low so they can't cover the production costs that have been incurred. Things like that really hit the economic conditions of farmers, especially small farmers who only have narrow land and depend on agriculture for their daily lives. Maintaining and maintaining the continuity of a program while continuously evaluating and correcting deficiencies is the most important thing, so that its good impact will continue to be felt by posterity in the future.