Jakarta, June 9 -- The Indonesian government has intensified its monitoring of food supplies and pricing to shield the national food sector from the impact of a sharply weakening rupiah, an official said.

The national currency recently breached a historic psychological threshold of 18,000 against the U.S. dollar.

The National Food Agency (Bapanas) confirmed Monday that the government is moving to mitigate potential price shocks as the currency's depreciation threatens to drive up the cost of agricultural inputs and imported commodities.

"The government is taking steps to address this, and it is certainly being monitored. Our target is to stabilize food supply and prices," said Andriko Noto Susanto, Deputy for Food Diversification and S...