Prabowo: The country cannot survive if rice and energy are still dependent on imports

TUBAN - President Prabowo Subianto considers food and energy to be the key to surviving or collapsing a country. Therefore, the government has begun to encourage a large agenda of food self-sufficiency as well as strengthening energy based on local resources.

Prabowo conveyed this message during the Simultaneous Corn Harvest Quarter II in Tuban, East Java, Saturday, May 16, 2026.

According to Prabowo, his experience as a former combatant commander made him understand the strategic meaning of food.

"If the troops don't have rice, they can't fight," said Prabowo.

He said that every military operation always starts by calculating food reserves before calculating bullets. Therefore, a country that is unable to maintain food will find it difficult to survive during a crisis.

Prabowo also recalled the independence war when soldiers and police lived on the help of the villagers.

"Farmers support the army and the police. They give bananas, yams, tiwul," he said.

According to the President, farmers and fishermen are the main foundation of the country because they are national food producers.

However, Prabowo's speech in Tuban did not stop at the matter of corn harvest. He began to associate food with energy security and national industries.

Prabowo admitted that he was surprised to see the innovation of using corn cobs into energy briquettes.

"Now it can be a source of energy. This is amazing," he said.

He also highlighted the development of fertilizer from low-calorie coal which is considered to reduce Indonesia's dependence on imported fertilizer.

"Once we are free from dependence on fertilizer from abroad, we become very strong," said Prabowo.

According to him, such innovations are important in the midst of the world energy crisis. The government, said Prabowo, must not allow Indonesia to continue to rely on foreign supplies for strategic sectors.

He asked all food and energy innovations to be immediately implemented in the field, not to stop as a concept or exhibition project.

"The concept is good if it cannot be realized in vain," he said.

Prabowo also linked the food agenda with the Red and White Cooperative, Free Nutritious Meals, to the construction of people's schools. All these programs are interconnected to strengthen the resilience of the national economy.

"We have to provide people's needs at the cheapest price so that purchasing power increases," he said.

Prabowo emphasized that food security, energy, and logistics distribution are now part of the big agenda to maintain Indonesia's sovereignty in the midst of an unstable global situation.