THis Red and White Cabinet has only been operating for a month, but there are already indications that, like its predecessor, President Prabowo Subianto’s administration is failing to handle national strategic issues. THE agriculture And food sectors could be the first victim.

The government is discussing changes to a number of regulations regarding the management of non-ministerial institutions and public enterprises in the field of agriculture and food. The functions of the National Food Agency and the Indonesian Quarantine Agency, which currently report directly to the President, will be transferred to the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture. At the same time, the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture will be expanded with additional responsibility to supervise and develop the fertilizer company Pupuk Indonesia, the distribution and trading company Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia, the plantation company Perkebunan Nusantara, the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) and the State Forestry Corporation. (Perhutani) – a role currently held by the Ministry of Public Enterprises.

Minister of Agriculture Amran Sulaiman asserts that efforts to accelerate the achievement of food self-sufficiency require coordinated policies. In his letter to Prabowo dated October 24, Amran speaks of “a single command for agriculture from top to bottom.” This proposal was accompanied by a draft text to amend the regulations which highlights the importance of integrated management of food and agriculture as a means of alleviating the global food crisis.

The threat of a global food crisis is serious. According to a report released in April by the World Food Program, in 2023, 281.6 million people worldwide will be in a state of acute food insecurity, a doubling compared to the figure five years earlier. Climate change and the geopolitical situation have caused economic problems, particularly in the global food supply chain, leading to an increase in the number of regions facing the threat of a food crisis in 59 countries. Even though Indonesia is not on this list of nations, it could still feel the consequences.

The government must formulate an integrated food policy to anticipate this. Management of the agricultural and food sectors has long been in disarray. Poor quality data and poor coordination between institutions have led to chaos in government policy, from planning to execution. An example of this is the food plantation projects in Central Kalimantan and North Sumatra during President Jokowi’s tenure.

But entrusting the Minister of Agriculture with control over food institutions and public enterprises is clearly a mistake. Instead of being a solution, this decision could create new problems. Prabowo must put an end to this project.

Prabowo is expected to order Minister Amran to focus on solving a number of problems within the Ministry of Agriculture. The audit report carried out by the Supreme Audit Agency published in September contains details of the poor performance of the Ministry of Agriculture in its programs aimed at ensuring the availability and accessibility of food products from 2021 to the first half of 2023 The management of the ministry’s expenditure budget Property, capital expenditure and current asset balance also had a large number of flaws as they were not supported by evidence of accountability and did not comply with regulations. .

With such a poor report, it is impossible to imagine how the Ministry of Agriculture will be able to fulfill its new responsibilities, particularly in terms of monitoring public enterprises related to food. There is a risk that these state-owned enterprises will have to bear the burden of the government’s ambitious rice plantation project. Prabowo and Amran a long time ago. Looking at previous experiences, when the government asked public companies to work on infrastructure projects, this led to significant losses for the companies and for the state budget. It would be very unfortunate if the agriculture and food sectors were the next target.