Indonesia Emphasizes The Importance Of Science, Technology And Innovation In APRC

Deputy for Food and Agribusiness Coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Dida Gardera (Doc. Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs)

JAKARTA - Indonesia expressed the importance of saving food and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the 37th Asia Pacific Regional Conference (APRC) Ministerial Meeting (MM) which was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Deputy for Food and Agribusiness Coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Dida Gardera, said that various efforts have been made by the Government of Indonesia in anticipating food rescue (saving food, saving water) and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dida conveyed that various efforts were made through Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to achieve SDGs 2: zero hunter, to fight for the modernization and digitization of accumulation and livestock, as well as precision agriculture for the transformation of food farming systems in the Asia-Pacific region.

"To anticipate food rescue, we can do this by reducing food losses and food waste," he explained in his official statement, quoted on Sunday, February 25.

Dida said that to overcome this critical problem, Indonesia has identified the main policy direction, including promoting behavior change, improving support systems, strengthening food rescue regulations, optimizing funding, utilizing loss and food waste.

Furthermore, Dida conveyed by developing a comprehensive study and collecting data on loss and food waste. Including the use of digital technology for the Digital Village Initiative program.

Meanwhile, since the launch of the Digital Village Initiative (DVI) Knowledge Platform in 2022, Indonesia has continued to support the implementation of this initiative as a forum for sharing experiences and providing technical support for digital innovation.

Dida also briefly conveyed several lessons obtained from the implementation of DVI, including that community involvement is very important in innovation to ensure complete digital inclusiveness, sustainability, and impact on society, as well as physical access to public infrastructure and digital literacy.

For information, the FAO Asia Pacific Regional Conference (APRC) is an official forum attended by the Ministers and top officials of FAO member countries to discuss and outline food problems in the Asia Pacific region and build cooperation to strengthen priorities and solutions related to food and agriculture.

On this occasion, the chairman of the Indonesian delegation, the Presidential Chief of Staff General TNI (Ret.) Dr. Moeldoko said that Indonesia plays a strategic role in encouraging the transformation of food and agricultural systems in the Asia Pacific region.

In addition, according to him, this can be seen from how Indonesia was asked to be a speaker in 7 sessions out of a total of 10 sessions at the meeting. The chairman of Delri also conveyed the idea of farmer regeneration as a solution to build food security in the region.

Indonesia shares learning and encourages new solutions to build food security together. Among them, we propose the establishment of a training center for the regeneration of farmers in the Asia Pacific region in Indonesia," explained Moeldoko.

On the same occasion, Plt. Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture Prihasto Setyanto also discussed National and Regional Priorities and Indonesia's commitment to accelerate a strong and sustainable agricultural food system and efforts to fulfill food availability for 278 million Indonesians.

Meanwhile, for short-term handling of the impact of the crisis, the Government prioritizes the provision of safety net programs for vulnerable communities, especially small-scale farmers and fishermen.

In the last two years since the pandemic, food conditions in the Asia-Pacific region have experienced setbacks in efforts to combat hunger. So it is very important to transform food systems in this area so that it becomes more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.

On the sidelines of the meeting, the Indonesian Delegation also held a series of strategic bilateral meetings, to encourage strengthening regional cooperation, including together with the Asia Pacific Director General FAO, Chairperson of the World Food Security Committee (CFS), as well as representatives of South Africa and Vietnam.