
By: Ah Maftuchan - Executive Director of The PRAARSA
FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY is a cross-border development agenda in Indonesia. Every time the president changes, this discourse always arises. The problem is, the realization of the food self-sufficiency program is far from the mark. The question arises: will this happen again during President Prabowo Subianto's administration?
In Asta Cita which contains eight priority missions, Prabowo includes food self-sufficiency. In the 100-day agenda of the government, which is called quick wins or the Fast Best Results Program (PHTC), Prabowo has set the printing of rice fields, increasing agricultural land productivity, and developing food barns as steps towards self-sufficiency. There is even a plan to stop importing a number of food commodities. Some of these programs and plans have begun to materialize even though the results have not been proven.
Looking back, the two previous governments set the food self-sufficiency agenda in different ways. In the Joko Widodo era, for example, there was a promise that food self-sufficiency would be achieved in two to three years. But, in reality, Indonesia still had to import millions of tons of rice per year. This means that food self-sufficiency in the Jokowi era can be concluded as a failure.
There are two factors causing the failure of food self-sufficiency in the Jokowi era. The first is the climate factor. El Niño hit rice productivity. This condition is difficult to control when agricultural technology innovation is still minimal. The second is governance. The food self-sufficiency agenda is apparently being pursued with a short-term approach wrapped in political interests. This is reflected in the food barn project or food estate which has proven to fail in producing food. On the other hand, food estate causing negative externalities on the environment and society.
During the administration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the food self-sufficiency project also failed. The Yudhoyono administration at that time targeted self-sufficiency in rice, corn, soybeans, sugar, and beef. The method also built food estate named Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate covering 1,23 million hectares in Papua and similar projects in Bulungan, East Kalimantan (now North Kalimantan), and Ketapang, West Kalimantan. Until the end of his term, Yudhoyono was unable to realize food self-sufficiency.
The Soeharto era was different. Through the Green Revolution approach, Indonesia achieved food self-sufficiency in 1984. However, this success did not last long because in 1990 Indonesia returned to importing rice. The Green Revolution was only effective for a short time. What is clear is that many problems arose, such as environmental damage due to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Genetically engineered rice seeds also stimulated the emergence of brown planthopper pests. Seeing this condition, Soeharto finally took a sharp turn by running a 1 million hectare peatland project in Central Kalimantan in 1996. But this project also failed miserably.
If we look at our predecessors, there are similarities in their approaches and results. The presidents before Prabowo implemented policies that were short term, bad governance, as well top-down and state-driven. The target of food self-sufficiency achieved in two to four years shows a short-term approach that is heavily influenced by political interests. In fact, food self-sufficiency must be placed as a national agenda so that it is free from political pragmatism.
Prabowo's target of achieving food self-sufficiency in three to four years shows a repetition of the ambitions of previous presidents. However, in order for the results to be different, before implementing the program, Prabowo must ensure a more solid and sustainable foundation, including by improving governance in the food sector by eradicating corrupt practices, collusion, and nepotism in the food sector. Ministries/institutions and food authorities in the regions that perform poorly also need to be fixed.
What also needs to be noted is that the approach is always used top-down in the food self-sufficiency program. All policies come from the central government. This shows that the local government is not playing an active role. Compared to the previous government, Prabowo will probably be stronger in implementing a command approach from the center to the regions. In fact, naturally, the condition of land, commodities, and varieties in one region is different from another region.
Don't forget, Indonesia has also implemented decentralization so that the food self-sufficiency project should use a combined centralistic and decentralized approach. The centralistic approach is still dominant state-driven—Almost all food self-sufficiency agendas are driven and determined by the state—could again thwart the objectives of this program. As an example that must be watched out for, the model food estate which was proven to fail in the Soeharto era, continued to be repeated in the Yudhoyono and Jokowi eras, and (will) return during Prabowo's administration.
In the 100th day of Prabowo's administration, the agenda quick wins Food self-sufficiency has only reached the level of rice fields or land. Meanwhile, crucial agendas such as the formation of new farmers, the development of agricultural production innovations, and other supporting policies have not been seen. What's worse, farmer participation in the food self-sufficiency agenda is very minimal. Farmers are only objects of one project to another.
Citing Baldy and Kruse (2019), to ensure sustainable food transformation, the participation of local actors such as farmers is needed. There needs to be a spirit food democracy in the food self-sufficiency agenda, making farmers both the subject and the object. Unfortunately, if we look at the data, there has been a decline in the number of workers in the agricultural, forestry, and fisheries sectors. The age of the workers is also getting older and the amount of land being worked is getting smaller.
The Central Statistics Agency's agricultural census stated that the number of individual agricultural businesses decreased from 31,7 million in 2013 to 29,3 million in 2023 or a 7,45 percent drop. The number of millennial farmers (aged 19-39 years) is only 6,1 million or around 21,9 percent, while farmers aged 40-65 years and above are 23,2 million or 78,1 percent of the total Indonesian farmers. The number of small farmers with land under 0,5 hectares increased from 14,25 million households in 2013 to 16,89 million households in 2023.
In order to achieve food self-sufficiency, Prabowo needs to strengthen programs and policies that favor farmers. For example, support for agricultural business capital, assistance for agricultural machinery, acceleration of agrarian reform and land redistribution, development of local seeds, cash assistance for purchasing fertilizers and seeds, crop failure insurance, and improving farming skills. The government must also develop downstream agricultural products and become off taker agricultural products while creating fairer commodity supply chains.
Free nutritious meals, Prabowo's flagship project, must also be integrated with the food self-sufficiency program. Free nutritious meals will only backfire fiscally if the food ingredients cannot be supplied domestically. Food imports for the project will have a negative impact on achieving food self-sufficiency.
From that note, we certainly do not want to repeat failure while expecting different results from the same approach. Don't be like Albert Einstein said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results". Therefore, the food self-sufficiency agenda requires a new approach that is well-organized, innovative, participatory, and sustainable in order to be successful and not just become a populist song of the new government.
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This article was previously published in Tempo Magazine, February 2, 2025 edition with the title “Pop Song of Food Self-Sufficiency”". Read more here: Tempo Newspaper