By Reuters

JAKARTA, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Indonesia will extend a rice handout programme for more than 33 million low-income households through to December, providing nearly ​one million metric tons of additional supplies in a ‌bid by the government to mitigate El Niño-related food-supply risks.

Here are more details:

• “The rice aid programme prepared for this year includes a ​30-kilogram allocation ending in September, which will be ​continued in October, November and December,” Coordinating Minister ⁠for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto told reporters late ​on Monday.
• The programme covers 33.24 million recipients nationwide, implying ​a total allocation of about 997,200 tons of rice over the three-month extension period.
• Rice is the staple food for most of Indonesia’s population of about ​290 million, and prices have steadily increased in the first ​half of the year as a result of higher production costs.
• State food procurement ‌agency ⁠Bulog will distribute the aid. It currently holds 5.25 million tons of rice stocks.
• Separately, the National Food Agency said in a statement on Tuesday that only around ​30% of the ​previous programme’s ⁠allocation had been distributed, and the government aims to complete that distribution in September.
• Indonesia’s ​rice output in the January-to-October period is estimated to ​reach 31.41 ⁠million tons, little changed from 31.44 million tons in the same period of 2025, data from the statistics bureau ⁠showed.
• The ​government has taken measures to protect rice production ​from drier-than-usual El Niño weather conditions, bringing forward the planting period and ​distributing water pumps.

Reporting by Dewi Kurniawati; Editing by David Stanway

Published Date: September 8, 2026