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Food sufficiency, or food security for Indonesia?
The goal of attaining food sufficiency has been linked to national pride, not just in relation to Prabowo’s nationalist and populist tendencies, but perhaps also to Indonesia’s status in the past as a underdeveloped country.
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Food matters: Local farmers harvest corn on July 6, 2023, in Wambes village, Mannem district, Keerom regency, Papua. The village hosted the trial of the national food estate program, which was aimed at ensuring food security in the eastern part of the country. (Antara/Sakti Karuru)
I
received a pleasant surprise a few weeks ago when I discovered that Siti, my housekeeper, has a green thumb. In an unused plot of land near her house, she has been planting spinach, ginger and even melons and grapes with seeds she got from my kitchen waste.
For a very long time, it has been a dream of mine to have a veggie garden, but I do not have the time or ability to do it. The benefits of growing your own food are many: health, saving money, eliminating pesticides and exercise – providing you do it yourself. And freshly picked homegrown vegetables simply taste better!
When I discovered Siti’s talent, I thought, will my decades-long dream finally come true? Immediately I bought seeds online—lettuce, celery, Japanese spinach, globe eggplant. For tomatoes and chilies, I dried seeds from leftover tomatoes and chilis I had used for cooking. Siti started planting and in just a few days, shoots started appearing. So exciting!
Food security is fundamental to us all. That is why the United Nations set up the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Oct. 16, 1945, “to help member countries address problems related to food production, distribution and nutrition”. Since 1981, Oct. 16 has been celebrated annually as World Food Day.
The importance of food security and nutrition is also why the new Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka administration has placed the free nutritious meals program at the top of its agenda. It aims to give free meals to schools and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), and nutritional assistance to under-threes and pregnant women.
Sumarjati Arjoso, a medical doctor and health education specialist, is the chairperson of the Women of Gerindra, the party Prabowo founded on Feb. 6, 2008. She sent me a 15-page power point of Prabowo’s “Indonesia’s Progress toward a Golden Indonesia 2045” program. She stated that this program is to be implemented in five years through the Eight Best Fast Results Program, the first being the free meals program which she explained in impressive detail in her power point.
She claimed that the pilot projects went well. But will it work out on a national scale?
