Holiday Ayo - The World Bank revealed that the price of rice in Indonesia is 20 percent more expensive than the price of rice on the global market.

In fact, currently domestic rice prices are consistently the highest in the ASEAN region. Head of World Bank Representative for Indonesia and Timor-Leste Carolyn Turk assesses that the high price of rice is due to several things, such as government policies regarding import restrictions and increasing production costs to tightening trade systems through non-tariffs.

"This price-distorting policy increases product prices and reduces agricultural competitiveness," said Carolyn as quoted by kompas.com, Friday (20/9).

Even so, he highlighted that the high domestic price of rice is not commensurate with the income of local farmers.

Summarizing the results of the Integrated Agricultural Survey, Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the average income of small farmers is less than 1 US dollar or IDR 15,199 per day.

Meanwhile, farmers' income per year only reaches 341 US dollars or IDR 5.2 million.

This survey also highlights that the income of food crop farmers, especially rice, is much lower than that of plantation or horticultural crops.

"So farmers get low profits, even though on the other hand consumers pay high prices for rice," explained Carolyn.

Furthermore, the high level of domestic rice has a more serious impact on the wider community.

The World Bank noted that currently only 31 percent of Indonesia's population is able to get healthy food because it is difficult to buy nutritious food such as meat, eggs, fish and vegetables.

"The high price of rice makes it increasingly difficult for poor consumers in Indonesia to buy nutritious food," said Carolyn.