Food security and Agrarian Reform
Jakarta – A publication issued by the UN Agency for Food and Agriculture (FAO) states that Indonesia is among the countries prone to food shortage. This is a warning and the Government must formulate strategic policies in the field of food and agriculture. It is ironic that the agricultural sector in Indonesia is treated like a step child. Farmers are no longer one of pillars in the economic empowerment. This sector has started to be abandoned due to its low production capacity.
At present, food and energy have increasingly become the world’s strategic commodities. As the number of population is getting larger, every country increases its efforts to maximally improve the nutrition. At the same time, economic activities become more intensive that they require large amount of energy.
Unfortunately, food and energy are not complementary, but substitution in nature. As they are substitution in nature, the demands from energy consumers and food consumers cause pressure on the price.
In the past few years, food security has become an important issue in Indonesia, particularly if it is related to natural disasters. Natural disaster is one of sources of food shortage. The threat of food security appears again when the farmers’ paddy fields are estimated to fail bear grains following the Bengawan Solo flooding.
Issues of food, drought, conversion of kerosene to gas and various disasters hitting the country are as if pose more burden on the underprivileged whose total population is relatively stagnant, about 37 million according to data from the Central Statistics Bureau (BPS) or more than 90 million people according to the World Bank.
As an agrarian country, Indonesia, a country with large poor population, faces two problems of food security, namely regional food security and household food security. The regional food security is described from the aspect of production, while the aspect of household food security is materialized with the ability of the people to access and consume food in accordance with the nutrient requirements to reach a healthy life level.
The Bengawan Solo disaster was a massive natural disaster that occurred simultaneously in several regions in East Java and Central Java. This disaster directly affects the regional food security which will eventually lower the people’s life quality. The Government is deemed failed in handling the situation as they let the traditional farmers directly face global players and markets. The above liberal system has undermined and damaged the national agricultural production.
This is ironical as Indonesia has huge potentials as an agrarian country. However, the raw materials for food such as rice and soybean are greatly dependent on supply of raw materials from imports.
Land is the most important asset for agricultural activities. Unfortunately, the government overlooks the matter. Land ownership as the most important pillar in production activities is increasingly unfriendly to the need of the agricultural sector. The average land ownership by peasant households is shrinking, and even in Java Island the average land ownership is only 0.25 hectares. Shrunken land ownership may originate from the heritage pattern that makes the land fragmented, infiltration of the industrial and service sectors which require land, and the government’s policies that abandon the agricultural sector.
According to BPS and BPN (National Land Agency), every five years, conversion of agricultural land to other utilizations (industry, services, settlement) reaches 106 thousand hectares. Accumulation of problems as above causes a drop in the production of agricultural commodities. Moreover, the infrastructure functioned to distribute agricultural products are not adequate. In one of regencies in Java, 60 percent of the irrigation channels were constructed during the Dutch era. How poor the fate of Indonesia’s farmers is.
Sharing the same opinion, Chalid Muhammad, the National Executive Director of WALHI said that threats of water shortage would also occur on Java Island. The population of Java at present makes up 65% of Indonesia’s population. On the other hand, water reserve in Java is only 4 percent of the national stock due to shrinking water catchments areas.
WALHI records that the number of districts affected by floods increases. There were 124 districts affected by flood in 2006, and the number increased to 260 districts in 2007. In the past five years, flood incidents on Java Island increased by three folds.
Based on the above data, WALHI urges the Government to stipulate policies on trade regulation by way protecting the local farmers through dynamic tariff and non tariff policies. In addition, the government’s support is required to improve the local farmers’ skills on the planting techniques, technology, seeds, irrigation, extension, credit and pro-farmer financial system.
Second, adequate and professional infrastructure is required to evenly distribute the agricultural products to all areas in Indonesia. Therefore, WALHI urges the Government to immediately construct and improve agricultural infrastructure. Construction of agricultural infrastructure is an important condition in order to support an advanced agriculture. In Japan, surveys on infrastructure are always conducted to ensure smooth distribution of agricultural products. The infrastructure is continuously improved to ensure that they would not hamper the distribution of agricultural products.
Threats in the form of food shortage will continue to pose this agrarian country, if the Government fails to work smart. Failure or ignorance would cause the health level of the majority of Indonesians to be lower. Indonesia needs not only responses but an agrarian reform in the sectors of agriculture and food. By having agrarian reform, farmers will have individual access, more options and freedom. This will boost the spirit to work, competition climate, and improve the productivity.
For more information, please contact:
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