The huge project is agronomically and environmentally not sustainable because a substantial portion of the rice estate will be developed on peatland, which is for the most part not suitable for growing rice.

Most independent agronomists and environmentalists have warned that the project will not be sustainable economically and ecologically and will only repeat the big mistake of the mega rice project launched by then-president Soeharto in the same area in the mid-1990s.

However, given Jokowi’s stubborn obsession with achieving rice self-sufficiency, not a single Cabinet member has dared to argue against the new project. Ministers and senior agriculture officials have blindly supported the plan, arguing that the government will learn from the failure of the rice estate project in the past, which wasted huge sums of taxpayer money.

Even the World Bank in its July report on Indonesia pointed out that the large rice estate project is environmentally and economically unfeasible, asserting that the opening of such vast estates will only increase pressure on the land.

The report quoted experts as arguing that peat areas are unsuitable for rice cultivation and the benefits are likely to be limited. On the other hand, deep peat areas are important carbon sinks and the conversion of peatland for agriculture generates large negative spillovers through forest and land fires, pollution and peatland degradation.

Media reports show that in 2019, fires burned across nearly 270,000 ha of land in Central Kalimantan, much of which comprised the former mega rice project area of the 1990s.

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