Infrastructure Development Needs To Be Directed For Food Security

Illustration (Photo: Doc Antara)

JAKARTA - Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) researcher Sarah Firdausi said infrastructure development needs to be directed to achieve food security.

According to him, this is important considering that food prices in the country are still relatively high and relatively unaffordable by some circles.

"In addition to connecting between regions in Indonesia, ideally infrastructure development can support the achievement of food security. Infrastructure development must be an added value to facilitate distribution so that food access and availability can increase," said Sarah as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, September 25.

In addition to the challenges of climate change that are now increasingly being felt, said Sarah, the agricultural sector is also faced with the vast area of Indonesia which results in high distribution costs.

The cost of logistics for this food will also be borne by consumers. As a result, food prices at the consumer level become more expensive.

When compared to other countries in ASEAN, for example, logistics costs in Indonesia are quite expensive, which is 24 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP).

Meanwhile, Malaysia is around 13 percent and Singapore is only 8 percent of the total GDP.

In addition to expensive logistics prices, the increase in fuel oil prices some time ago increased the complexity of food distribution.

Areas that are far from the food production center require greater transportation costs compared to those located relatively close to food production centers.

Coupled with other factors, such as rising fertilizer prices, food availability becomes increasingly difficult and prices that must be borne by consumers will be higher.

Therefore, infrastructure development is expected to be able to achieve price stability and the availability of food commodities throughout Indonesia.

Sarah said that infrastructure development must be directed to support the creation of more efficient food distribution routes.

The provision of the right type of infrastructure will create an efficient food distribution route between regions.

Local and imported commodities will be distributed evenly to various regions in the country.

This will have an impact on the stability of food commodity prices and also their availability.

In addition, continued Sarah, infrastructure development must also be directed to support Indonesia's integration with international trade.

Not only promoting exports, Indonesia must also be ready to import commodities, both food and raw materials, to increase price efficiency and affordability.

By following this mechanism, Indonesia will become more competitive in the field of exports and imports.

Prices of goods and commodities will also follow international mechanisms so that no party can monopolize a certain item or commodity.

"With the easier it is to enter and exit goods or commodities from Indonesia, the prices of these goods and commodities will be more affordable. This certainly has a positive impact, namely that people can meet their needs with quality commodities at affordable prices and this also encourages the development of an area," said Sarah.

Food security-oriented infrastructure development will also open investment opportunities because infrastructure readiness is one of the things that potential investors pay attention to.

CIPS also encourages the government to create distribution channels for goods and commodities, in this case local food and imports, through infrastructure development that is being implemented.