T

he government's aspiration of reaching food sovereignty may face a serious challenge in the form of the ASEAN single market, which will ease the flow of imports and will become effective next year.

A freer flow of imports will be made possible with a reduction of import duties on most food commodities.

Cheaper imports could drive Indonesia to source unprocessed food products from overseas, instead of pushing ahead with its plan to boost production and achieve
self-sufficiency.

The prices of some staple foods such as rice and soybean at the farmers' level in Indonesia are relatively higher than prices in the majority of the country's Southeast Asian neighbors.

The local rice price, for instance, is 10 percent higher than the price of rice imported from Thailand and Vietnam, according to the State Logistics Agency
(Bulog).

'There's no other choice but to become self-sufficient. Although our price is higher than our neighbors, there's no need to import when we have enough output,' said Bulog president director Soetarto Alimoeso.

There has been a constant debate in Indonesia on whether to achieve food sovereignty, which underlines local sourcing, or maintain food security, which highlights food availability regardless of its sources, including imports.

However, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has made it clear since the beginning that he wants food sovereignty over food security ' particularly to feed the country's 250 million people, the fourth biggest population in the world.

This is a strategic issue, particularly concerning rice. Indonesia has been one of the world's largest producers of rice, but at the same time it is a net importer and local production is insufficient to build
stockpiles.

Reliance on imports to build stockpiles may pose a risk when there is an increase in overseas rice prices.

Indonesians consume sizeable amounts of rice with an annual intake reaching 139 kilograms per capita, among the highest in Southeast Asia.

Another problem arises when the sources of imports encounter problems with their harvests due to climate change, as was the case in 2012. That year, the US, a major source of soybean for Indonesia, struggled with a shortage of output after severe droughts, prompting an increase in prices when
arriving here.

The Jokowi administration has vowed to gradually increase local production to nearly 4 percent next year and to attain this target, it plans to rehabilitate 1 million hectares of tertiary irrigation canals and distribute 25,000 tons of subsidized seeds and subsidized fertilizers for 1 million ha of farmland.

But farmer groups and experts have said that many more incentives must be rolled out to help accelerate the process and to get things done beyond 'business as usual'.

Andalan Fishermen and Farmers Community (KTNA) representative Winarno Tohir proposed the establishment of farmer-owned enterprises (BUMP) with initial funds from the government.

These enterprises would manage rice mills with a series of business operations to process milling waste into products with economic value, such as rice flour and bran oil.

Hermanto Siregar, an expert from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, said the government must seek a breakthrough to massively expand farming areas.