Since the end of 2023, Indonesia has reopened rice imports to meet domestic demand. One million tons of rice will be imported from India and two million tons from Thailand. These imports are a continuation of import contracts previously approved by President Joko Widodo.
Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data shows that Indonesia's total rice imports from January to November 2023 reached 2.53 million tons, valued at US$1.45 billion. Why, a country known for its agricultural base, can import so much? Numerous factors contribute, including weather/climate factors, shrinking agricultural land due to owners selling it off, the technology used, and more.
Rice, a staple food for Indonesians, is a crucial commodity included in the long-term plan to achieve domestic food security. The government has implemented various efforts, such as tightening fertilizer distribution, agricultural management training, and the development of the largest project currently underway, known as the food estate, all to safeguard Indonesia's food sovereignty.
From an economic perspective, how will the agricultural sector contribute to overall sales if domestic food supply is still being imported? Indeed, the agricultural sector's contribution to nominal GDP declined by 13.70 percent (2020), 13.28 percent (2021), and 12.40 percent (2022). Given this GDP decline, it's safe to assume that Indonesia's rice productivity hasn't yet achieved its desired goal, let alone achieving food self-sufficiency, which appears highly challenging.
What should we do, given the small reality that Indonesia is no longer as agrarian as it once was? First, develop human resources who truly love agriculture. PDDikti records 1,862 agricultural study programs with 313,169 students.
Second, easy access to agricultural facilities. One important facility provided to farmers, but one that consistently presents problems, is fertilizer. Problems arise from upstream to downstream, from data collection of fertilizer requests to sales to farmers. Even the issuance of the Farmer Card (Kartu Tani) has not provided a solution to the fertilizer problem. As a crucial component of increasing food crop productivity, the government's commitment to providing fertilizer assistance needs to be questioned, as the allocation of subsidized fertilizer spending has consistently decreased over the past three years, from 34 trillion (2020), 25 trillion (2021), and a significant drop to 23 trillion (2022).
Third, is a food estate still viable? The food estate concept of providing large tracts of land focused on food production remains viable, but with the caveat that this concept requires thorough and sustainable preparation. Preparing a strategy to realize the food estate concept again comes back to the first point: how well our human resources are prepared, and whether they are ready to become farmers. Of course, these farmers are modern farmers who have developed cutting-edge models and technologies for their application in the field.
Agricultural graduates are provided with supporting facilities to practice their knowledge in agricultural processing. The crops developed are food crops and commodity crops that command high market value. The program is implemented sustainably, meaning the food estate concept must be fully managed sustainably while still considering its impact on the environment. Food estates, as the nation's food barn, require support to maintain food sovereignty, thereby increasing the country's self-sufficiency in food security and minimizing imports from other countries. The Global Report on Food Crises (2023) has sounded the alarm for countries in the Asian region, including Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, as they are experiencing a food security crisis.
Indonesia needs to prepare itself to be self-sufficient in domestic food and not rely on imports. The food estate program deserves support as part of Indonesia's long-term plan. Besides maintaining domestic food supplies, it can be utilized as a sector that can add value to GDP. Given that several countries are experiencing food crises, Indonesia could sell some of its harvest to other countries.
Once again, discussing the issue of less-than-satisfactory agricultural output requires a broad perspective, as the steps outlined above are not fully able to address why Indonesia cannot achieve its former agrarian goals. Policy improvements need to be reviewed, such as the regulation on Indonesia's rice reserves, which currently stands at only 8%, which could be increased to cover crop failures. Equally important is trying to change the behavior of a population that consumes almost 97% of its rice, shifting to alternative foods such as tubers. This is certainly not easy. However, there's no harm in trying, as humans don't have to rely on rice forever.
Author: Dicky Andriyanto – Lecturer in Accounting Study Program, Faculty of Economics and Business – Universitas Airlangga