Coordinating Minister Airlangga: The Government Has Formulated The National Food Security Strengthening

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, stated that the government is serious about ensuring national food security.

In fact, he said, a number of policies have been issued, one of which is establishing the National Food Agency.

"Food security is not only a priority but also a target for welfare and equitable distribution of community welfare. The government has formulated and implemented policies to strengthen national food security," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto in his statement, Wednesday, September 15.

It is known, some time ago Indonesia received an award from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for being self-sufficient in rice. However, according to Airlangga, rice self-sufficiency 'costs' expensive, namely the fate of the farmers themselves.

"If the harvest, prices fall," he said.

However, Airlangga stressed, the government has made a number of efforts to help farmers, namely providing subsidized fertilizers and assigning Bulog to buy farmers' grain or rice until the CBP stock reaches 1.2 million tons of rice equivalent.

"Indonesia has surplus fertilizer, related to several regions requesting the availability of fertilizer. Yesterday with the Minister of Agriculture we discussed, of course it is limited so fertilizer is limited to subsidized urea and npk, and there are nine commodities," said Airlangga.

Talking about the welfare of farmers, Researcher from the Center for Food, Energy and Sustainable Development Indef Rusli Abdullah, revealed a number of problems in the world of agriculture in Indonesia.

"There are structural problems in our agriculture, for example the problem of small land ownership that does not meet economies of scale. Farmers are aging, labor is rising, young people don't want to farm, labor costs are so expensive," said Rusli.

For this reason, Rusli suggested that the government should consolidate land, either through state-owned enterprises or state-owned enterprises.

According to Rusli, so far, farmers have small and limited land with suboptimal yields.

"There must be someone who manages the land, on a broad scale of consolidation, which can provide economic value," said Rusli.

If the government is still unsure about the efficiency of agricultural land consolidation by BUMN, said Rusli, they can ask the National Food Agency (Bapanas) to conduct a pilot project.

"A very wide expanse, managed by the government professionally, with technology and empowering farmers, so there is no need to fight over water," he said.