Food Estate and Food Security Challenges in Indonesia

President Joko Widodo sees the global food crisis as an opportunity for Indonesia to become the world's food basket. Current challenges require major innovation in dealing with these problems. President Jokowi emphasized the need for extraordinary and unreasonable innovation in building a food ecosystem, with the hope of increasing rice productivity to 10-12 tons per hectare.

The Food Estate or food barn concept aims to create fertile fields for national food supplies and overcome the food crisis, with significant funding allocations. The funding allocation of IDR 108.8 trillion is an indication of the government's seriousness in carrying out this project. However, Food Estate implementation often does not meet expectations, with fertile land turning into a source of disaster, exposing the gap between concept and implementation.

As published on voi.id, construction of the Food Estate in Central Kalimantan began in 2020, with an initial area of 30,000 hectares out of a total of 1.4 million hectares. However, after three years, what happened was decline and uncertainty. Land which was expected to be a source of food security, now has the potential to become a hotspot and disaster.

Previously, similar projects had been carried out during the Soeharto and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) administrations, but ended in failure. The decision to open a Peat Land Project (PLG) in Central Kalimantan shows the weakness of this concept and its negative impact on the ecosystem and society.

The failure of Food Estate was caused by violations of the four pillars of large-scale agricultural land development. According to agricultural observer and IPB professor, Dwi Andreas Santosa, as stated in VOI, unsuitable land, inadequate infrastructure, immature technology, and neglected socio-economic aspects all contributed to the failure of this project.

The polemic surrounding Food Estate has resurfaced. PDIP and academics expressed opinions for and against this project. Secretary General of PDIP, Hasto Kristiyanto, said that the Food Estate project policy was being misused. Because of this policy, according to Hasto, forests were cut down. And part of environmental crime.

Responding to criticism of the Food Estate, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) emphasized that building food barns is not easy because crop productivity usually fails the first time. He also emphasized that food barns are important for anticipating food crises as strategic reserves and for exports if food availability is abundant.

In understanding the pros and cons, it is important to remember that achieving food security is not an easy task. It is important to understand the concept of food security which involves aspects of food availability, affordability, and utilization. Sustainable solutions and attention to social and environmental impacts are the main priorities in maintaining food security.

The government needs to reflect back on the Food Estate concept with a thorough evaluation, careful calculations, and attention to social and environmental aspects. This is important considering the soaring price of rice due to the drought and India's export ban. In achieving the goal of food security, sacrifices to the ecosystem, society, and natural balance must also be avoided.