Indonesia continues rice assistance for the poor

Head of the National Food Agency of Indonesia (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi has said the rice assistance programme will continue in 2025 as it has been approved by President Prabowo Subianto.

Jakarta (VNA) – Head of the National Food Agency of Indonesia (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi has said the rice assistance programme will continue in 2025 as it has been approved by President Prabowo Subianto.

Arief said the programme targeted 22 million beneficiary families last year. However, the number of beneficiary families will be reduced to 16 million next year, though the amount of rice will remain the same, namely 10 kilograms for each beneficiary family.

Furthermore, there will be other programmes that will have wide coverage in 2025, such as the Free Nutritious Meals.

The third phase distribution of rice assistance for December is underway in several regions and targeted to be completed before the end of the year.

According to the Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the number of the poor in March stood at 25.22 million, reflecting a 0.68 million decrease compared to the same period last year and a decline of 1.14 million compared to September 2022./.

VNA

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