Mendes PDTT: Villages Have A Strategic Role In Realizing Food Security

Mendes PDTT gave a speech at the Mainstay Farmers and Fishermen Contact (KTNA) The Exporience 2022 event in Sragen, Central Java/Via ANTARA

JAKARTA - Minister of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration (Mendes PDTT), Abdul Halim Iskandar said that villages have a strategic role to achieve food security.

"We have to realize that this village is very strategic in planning, implementing development and implementing policies," said Mendes PDTT in a written statement received in Jakarta, Antara, Monday, August 1.

As time goes on, he hopes, the role of the village will be maximized to answer all the challenges of the nation, especially food security.

Based on Population and Civil Registration (Dukcapil) data, it is stated that 71 percent of Indonesia's population are villagers. Meanwhile, the territory of Indonesia consists of 91 percent of villages, and the rest are urban areas.

"If the food problem in the village is resolved, automatically 71 percent of the national food problem will be resolved," he said. Currently, according to him, the Indonesian people are in the safe category in food matters at a time when other countries are facing challenges regarding food.

"Thank God, Indonesia is still comfortable, it's simply because we have 74,961 villages, which is equal to 91 percent of Indonesia's territory or equal to 71 percent of Indonesia's population," said Gus Halim, as he is usually called.

Previously, Professor of the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) Dwi Andreas said that Indonesia's food condition would be safe in 2022, although some of its needs must be met from imports.

He said that Indonesia's food security was quite good as seen from the Indonesian food security index of 59.2 which put Indonesia in position 69 of 113 countries in 2021. Rice production in the last 20 years was relatively stable at around 54 million tons per year.

In 2022, the production of several food commodities will decline, such as wheat, which fell 1 percent from 778.3 million tons from the previous year to 770.3 million tons due to drought in the European Union, while the war between Russia and Ukraine disrupted its distribution.