IPB Researchers Break Down the Narrative of Feri Amsari Regarding the Swasembada Lie: Statistical Data and Bulog Stock Speak

BOGOR - Researcher from the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), Edi Sentosa, responded to the cold sharp criticism of the observer of state governance law, Feri Amsari, regarding the government's claim of food self-sufficiency.

Edi assessed that every lawsuit against public policy is a natural thing, but it must be based on valid data so as not to be trapped as mere opinions that mislead the public.

Responding to Ferry's accusation that self-sufficiency was a lie, Edi referred to official statistical figures that showed a different reality on the ground.

Based on BPS data in 2025, national production experienced a surge triggered by an increase in harvest area of 1.7 million hectares.

"The increase in production is actually reasonable. Let's say there is an increase in the harvest area of 1 million hectares, if the average productivity is multiplied, it is already 5 million tons. So, the target for achieving in 2025 is very reasonable in mathematical terms," said Edi Sentosa in Bogor, Monday, April 20, 2026.

Edi emphasized that the most authentic evidence to break the "lie" accusation was the physical availability of rice in government warehouses today.

He compared the current situation with the previous period where self-sufficiency claims were often not accompanied by the availability of real goods.

"The most authentic evidence is the rice stock at Bulog. In the past, the figure was claimed to have increased, but the goods at Bulog only amounted to around 1 million tons. Now, the stock has reached 4.6 million tons. With these two data alone, our statistics and physical data have a strong basis to believe in," he said.

Furthermore, Edi highlighted the phenomenon of expanding the concept of Pentahelix into Hexahelix in national agriculture, where the involvement of the apparatus is the key to accelerating the wide planting in the past year.

Although this involvement often reaped pro-contra politically, he saw it purely from the perspective of technical functions that proved to be real in the field.

Edi gave an example that the model of involving the police in the agricultural sector had also been carried out in other countries in the event of a food emergency.

Edi Sentosa emphasized that the food self-sufficiency narrative this year is not just a political "stage", but the result of a measurable synergy between academics, government, farmers, and the role of the apparatus.

For him, statistical data that is in line with the rice pile in the Bulog warehouse is the most convincing answer to ending the debate on the truth of food self-sufficiency in 2026.