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Indonesia revives its dream of becoming the world’s food barn

Umito November 2, 2024

In his inaugural speech, President Prabowo Subianto boldly declared that Indonesia could achieve food self-sufficiency and even become the world’s food basket within four to five years. Although this vision is ambitious, it is not new.

Unfortunately, this remains far from reality given the current state of our agricultural sector. Our farmers, both individually and institutionally, face many obstacles that make this goal almost impossible to achieve in such a short time.

Currently, food self-sufficiency in Indonesia remains more of an aspiration than an achievement. This is evident in the steady increase in food imports, which highlights the country’s continued dependence on foreign supplies and casts doubt on the immediate prospects for self-sufficiency.

From January to September this year, the Indonesian Bureau of Statistics (BPS) reported a large influx of key food imports, including rice, corn, soybeans and sugar. Imports of rice alone amounted to 3.23 million tonnes, corn 0.97 million tonnes, soybeans 2.16 million tonnes and sugar 3.66 million tonnes.

Compared to the same period last year, rice imports increased by 80.68 percent, corn by 44.97 percent and soybeans by 15.64 percent. These sharp increases highlight Indonesia’s growing dependence on imported food products.

Even more troubling is our dependence on wheat, a food crop that we cannot grow domestically. As of September, Indonesia imported around 9.19 million tonnes of wheat, an increase of 20.35 percent compared to the same period last year. This dependence on imported wheat further increases the country’s vulnerability to global supply disruptions and threatens food security.

This year’s rice imports are expected to reach historic highs, a trend that coincides with a sharp decline in domestic rice production. According to recent BPS projections, rice production for food consumption will decrease by about 757,134 tonnes, or 2.43 percent, compared to last year, marking the second consecutive year of decline.