Claim: Indonesia is the third largest producer of rice.
Source: Varflay Kamara of ELBC
Verdict: Misleading! Indonesia is not the third-largest rice-producing country
Full Text: Varflay Kamara, a state broadcaster in a live broadcast, claimed that Indonesia is the world’s third-largest rice producer.
Kamara is currently on a national trip with President Joseph Boakai in Indonesia for the Indonesia-Africa Forum.
Boakai and other members of the Liberian delegation landed in Bali, Indonesia, marking the start of their participation in the 2nd Indonesia-Africa Forum (IAF).
The claim can be found here at 1 minute 37 seconds in a Friday, August 30, 2024 podcast.
Kamara is heard saying, “Liberia and Indonesia have similarities in the staple food, rice, Indonesia is the third highest producer or largest producing country of rice and Liberia’s staple food is rice, and in terms of agriculture, President Boakai is coming to make a compelling case at this forum.”
Verification: To verify this claim, The Stage Media contacted Kamara. According to him, his claim is based on a document shared by the Executive Mansion.
He requested that we read the portion on rice that states that “rice is the staple food for both Liberians and Indonesians. While Indonesia is the third largest producer of rice, mostly cultivated by small-scale farmers, Liberia is highly dependent on imported rice.”
A 1998 FAO report has it that China was the principal rice producer (35 percent), followed by India (22 percent), Indonesia (8.5 percent), Bangladesh (4.7 percent), Thailand (4.3 percent), and Viet Nam (3.4 percent).
In 2022/ 2023, Indonesia was the fourth largest producer, according to Statista.
The US Development of Agriculture 2023/24 ranks Indonesia as the fourth top-producing rice country.
World Food and Agriculture—Statistical Yearbook 2023 did not rank Indonesia third.
The FAO June 2024 Food Outlook—Biannual report on global food markets ranked Indonesia fourth and not third.
We also checked if rice is a staple food for Indonesians; in these reports here and here, it showed that rice is the country’s staple food.
Conclusion: Our research revealed that Indonesia is not the third-largest rice producer, as Kamara claimed. We established that the report about Indonesia being the third rice producer is an old FAO report that has been updated; therefore, the broadcaster claimed is incorrect. However, Kamara was correct in his assertion that Indonesia, like Liberia, relies on rice as a staple food.
