T

em>The agriculture sector has moved away from its heyday back in the 1980s, when the production of key staple foods such as rice was abundant, outstripping demand. The reality is starkly different now as the country regularly imports rice, vegetables and other foodstuffs in large quantities. Total food imports reached Rp 125 trillion (US$13.25 billion) last year according to statistics by the Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI), creating an irony for the once-glorious agricultural nation. The Jakarta Post’s Linda Yulisman recently talked with Agriculture Minister Suswono on the matter and other issues pertaining to the country’s local food production. Below are excerpts from the interview.   

Question: What are the main hurdles at present in developing the agricultural sector?

Answer: Certainly climate change, which, as we saw last year, caused a decline in our rice production.

Second, the conversion of farming land for industrial and housing projects, which can reach up to 100,000 hectares annually.

Apart from this, the allocation of the state budget for the agricultural sector is still relatively low compared with, for example, fuel subsidies. So, the budget needs to be raised; in fact, it would be even better if there was a fixed annual allocation, as is the case for education.

If the budget is increased, what can be done to enhance the agricultural sector?

One of the priorities would be to create new planting areas to counteract the land conversions; ideally providing more land than the losses of farming areas. In this way, we can maintain the balance between food production and population growth of 1.49 percent per year.  

Another priority would be to support research and development [R&D] aimed at generating new crop varieties with higher productivity compared to existing strains. A large budget is necessary for this research.

Advanced countries that are able to boost their productivity rely highly on research.

We still lack innovation in agricultural technology. How do you respond to that?        

Actually, our innovation is already quite good, but we need sufficient funds to focus on research into genetically modified organisms [GMOs].

In the future, what will be the priority of the national agricultural sector: food crops, plantation crops or other things?

In my opinion, it should be food crops. Looking to the future, every country must strengthen its food security. For this reason, our President expects a rice surplus of 10 million tons at a minimum to avert imports, and this would ensure state stability. Staple foods are a very strategic commodity and can lead to political misery following a shortage.

Talking about staple foods, we actually have many sources of carbohydrates other than rice. We aim to develop varied staple-food sources, including cassava, corn and sago, according to what a particular region has. As Indonesia is rich in food sources, we will certainly not experience a food crisis.

Although we have leading production in plantation crops, it doesn’t mean we can ignore other food commodities. Due to the shortage of new planting areas, we need to empower plantation areas to assist with food security — in this case, to boost meat production.

Currently we are trying to integrate oil palm and sugar cane plantations with animal breeding through the “oil palm — cattle” and “sugarcane — cattle” programs. A similar effort will also be carried out for the production of horticulture — fruit and vegetables — which, at present, we partly derive from imports.

In the past year, the State-Owned Enterprises and Forestry Ministries have been committed to providing new planting areas, including the use of idle land. How is that progressing?

Yes, that’s true. One of the programs was the development of food estates, including one in Merauke, Papua. However, back to the land problem, the acquisition of land is not as easy as it might seem. We have to deal with customary land [tanah ulayat], for example. Converting forest areas is also not easy.

In fact, we still cannot execute the conversion of 7.8 million hectares of so-called “idle land”.

Fortunately, there are currently several regional governors who are very progressive, such as in East Kalimantan. The governor there has provided land for a food estate in the region and this initiative is supported by state-owned enterprises working in agriculture-related areas. Sang Hyang Sri has obtained access to 40,000 hectares, while Perhutani has access to 30,000 hectares. Sang Hyang Sri has so far begun working with 3,000 hectares in East Kalimantan.

Up to the present, we are highly dependent on rice. How about a food diversification program?

The past policy to promote rice as our main staple food has been proven wrong because not all areas across the country can produce rice.

We are promoting a campaign on consuming various kinds of food, even in places where rice production is abundant, as this will make our people healthier. Indonesia is now home to the world’s fourth-largest population of diabetes sufferers, allegedly due to the high consumption of rice. That’s why we are aiming to raise awareness so that rice will become an alternative staple food alongside other kinds of staple foods.

We are now initiating a household-based food security program, which we have named the ‘Sustainable Food House’ [Rumah Pangan Lestari]. It is designed to encourage people to utilize available space in their own backyards where they can plant vegetables and breed animals like chickens and rabbits. We have around 10-hectares of backyards nationwide.

Based on one economic estimate, this could reduce household spending by between Rp 195,000 and Rp 700,000 per month.

Apart from the efforts that you mentioned earlier, what does the government plan to do to help reduce food imports?

Regarding horticulture, we have a deficit in trade as our imports are higher than our exports. Our imports rise because of the local demand here and consumers tend to buy cheap products without thinking about their quality.

That’s why we have tightened up supervision on horticultural imports because a large number of the imported products are low quality.

We expect that Indonesians will prefer locally sourced products despite their higher costs. Increased local consumption may serve in turn as an incentive for local farmers to grow more, which could lead to a massive movement by farmers to improve their food quality along with boosting production.