ISED: Food And Energy Transition Boosts National Economy

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Economist and Co-Founder of the Institute of Social Economics and Digital (ISED) Expert Council Ryan Kiryanto said the food transition and energy transition are needed to reduce the crisis that occurs at the global level so that it can revive the national economy.

Ryan said that the food transition can be done through food diversification, which is to encourage people to vary the staple food they eat without focusing on just one type.

"This means that people don't just rely on rice or paddy, but people are introduced to other agricultural commodities such as corn, tubers, sago," Ryan said as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, August 3.

With that, if the rice stock runs out, the government does not need to export this type of staple food because other types of staple food are already available.

Ryan continued, modernization of the agricultural sector is also needed so that it can increase harvest capacity and make plants survive in any weather conditions.

"In any weather, staple crops will still be harvested, with technology we can harvest more," said Ryan.

Thus, this can overcome the problem of scarcity of staple foods that has occurred in the last few months caused by erratic weather conditions in production centers.

After that, he reminded the importance of collaboration between the National Food Agency and related ministries and institutions to ensure adequate and sufficient national food stocks under any conditions and situations in every region in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, regarding the energy transition, Ryan said that Indonesia must accelerate the implementation of New and Renewable Energy (EBT), one of which is by producing non-fossil fuel production.

"For example, from CPO (Crude Palm Oil) it is used as energy, or from castor oil it is used as alternative fuel," said Ryan.

Ryan continued, the energy transition can also be done by increasing solar panels to utilize energy from sunlight and using dams to create energy through hydropower.

Then, according to him, in the future various electronic devices to motorized vehicles will need to use lithium batteries so that it is in accordance with the purpose of EBT, namely to reduce exhaust emissions.

"Energy from fossil fuels is high in pollution, we have to start reducing CO2 emissions," said Ryan.

Previously, Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Margo Yuwono said the global food and energy crisis had put pressure on domestic inflation throughout 2022.

BPS noted that the annual inflation in July 2022 had reached 4.94 percent (yoy) or the highest since October 2015.