A coalition of activists called on the government to review a policy on a large-scale food production systems being built over 1.6 million hectares of forest areas in Merauke, Papua province.
They said the 2010 government regulation on cultivation would not improve the country’s food sovereignty issue as it only accommodated the interests of the giant private companies to reap benefits.
The government should assess, among other issues, whether the estate would benefit local people and whether Merauke’s environment could accommodate such a huge food estate project.
“It is too risky for the country to entrust its food sovereignty to private businesses,” the coordinator of Alliance for Prosperous Villages, Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko told reporters on Thursday.
Article 2 in the regulations says the cultivation aimed to promote food sovereignty and security and improve local people’s welfare.
The regulation says that in Papua a license holder could manage 20,000 hectares, twice as large allowed in other provinces.
Article 24 says the products from the cultivation should be prioritized to meet domestic needs in the event a natural disaster or massive crop failure. The status would be determined by the president.
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