Indonesia’s Quest for Food Sufficiency: A New Agricultural Political

Economy?

Critical Review

Food self-sufficiency is a policy goal to eliminate food imports. Food self-

sufficiency is also defined as the access for an affordable food price and the support
for domestic food producers. Sometimes, it is received as the way to improve the
outcome of local farmers, whereas the one that has to be self-sufficient is the need
of food of all people in the nation, as well as individual access to food, affordable
price or other things related to improve domestic production and lower imports. Food
policies in the national level tend to benefit the elite of agribusiness at the same time
with marginalizing the small scale farmers. However, government intention to
develop a structural change are out of agribusiness, but about the acquisition of
manufacturing capacity. Therefore, government intervention about development of
rural area fails since they are trying to reduce poverty without eliminating what
produced poverty.

Sometimes, the succeed of food production becomes the measure of self-

sufficiency. Even though Indonesia has accomplished self-sufficient, Indonesia
keeps importing rice, because BULOG as the food organization in Indonesia needs
to fulfill its rice stock about 1.5 until 2 million tons and maintains price stability.
Moreover, there are a contradiction regarding the policy, government is trying to
raise the price to encourage the production of rice, while in the other hand, they have
a goal to stabilize the price. Therefore, we can say that food-sufficiency policies have
reduced food security, means that people cannot get an affordable price and create
a suffering among poor people. Because of this reason, government is still importing
rice in order to create a stability on rice price.

There is a different view on how producers and consumers view this policy
about the increase on price. The increase of rice price only benefits the net
producers, only a very small part of the whole population in Indonesia, while the rest
will suffer with this increase. Moreover, there is a less access on the land within the
rural sector, it means that there will be less net producers who will get the benefit in
the three classification of agricultural sector such as large scale corporate business,
small holders and small landowner and landless farmer also consolidating of middle
farmers. Not only that, those who will get the biggest beneficiaries is only the land
owner, since when the price of rice increase, the price of the land will also increase.
It will limit the landless farmer to access the benefit from the higher price. They will
only work for the land owner and suffer with the implication of rice price rise.

Illiberal food self-sufficiency policies are associated with widening rural

inequalities, however, it could create an inclusivity in the agricultural development.
Firstly, since the political weight of smallholder farmers is significant, then it becomes
the target of political elite by saying that rural sector is important. Secondly, self-
sufficiency policies can strengthen the political weight of farmers whose economic
interest they support, because through either official or unofficial organization, the
small farmers or landless farmers have a greater access for land which can enhance
the opportunity for political participation. Thirdly, in the presidential election 2014,
Joko Widodo won the rural vote, since in his campaign he commit to support the
rural. Joko Widodo expanded the land reform agenda, increasing agricultural
subsidies and give credit to give funds for village and infrastructure development.
Then, from that moment the political status of farmers as agricultural producers has
increased.
Personal Opinion

In my opinion, food sufficiency is really important for a country, as well as

maintaining the food stock at a certain level. A country needs to have stockpile of
some commodities to prevent hunger and malnutrition during an unexpected
condition, as what is happening right now, COVID-19 pandemic. The article
mentioned that Indonesia is still importing rice even though the country has
accomplished a self-sufficient, and the mentioned reason is for stabilize the price,
because there will be 1.5 until 2million tons stockpile on BULOG. So, from this
statement, we can conclude that actually, Indonesia is only self-sufficient in providing
rice for the people, but not self-sufficient to fulfill the stockpile at 1.5 until 2million
tons level. Then, people will start to argue that maintaining the stockpile at a certain
level by doing an import is not necessary, as long as the local production can fulfill
the needs of all people, it is enough. However, during this COVID-19 condition, the
stockpile of rice is really helpful for those who need. I cannot imagine if Indonesia
does not have those stockpile, the government could not distribute the rice for the
poor because they are running out of rice stock at the BULOG, in result, there are a
lot of people who suffer from hunger, and the price of rice in the market can suddenly
increase because more demand and less supply.

In response to the contradiction between the goal to increase the price to

boost the production of rice and stabilizing the price by importing, the government
should mainly consider about how much people will get the benefit by the policies. In
my opinion, the policies that should be implemented is the one which benefit more
people. For example, if the government wants to increase the price in order to raise
the rice production, then, only farmers or rice producers will get the benefit from the
high price, because they can have more profit, while in the other hand, the rest of the
country will suffer because of the high price on rice. So here, the government should
choose between the majority of the country, the rice consumer, or the minority of the
country, the farmers. Actually it would be very hard for a government to implement
the policies, especially for Mr. Joko Widodo, because on his campaign, he wants to
raise the living standard of farmers, but he also has to make sure that the rice price
is affordable for everyone in the country.
 However, the farmer that will get the benefit is not all farmers, the landless
farmer will not get the benefit of the high price, even make the situation worst for
them. Why? Because if the government want to increase the price of rice, it will
make the price of the land (rice field) becomes more expensive, and therefore
reduce the access of small farmer or landless farmer to own a land. Then all of the
high profit will only go to the land owner or the farmer that has a very huge rice field,
because they can enjoy the price increase on the rice and the price increase on the
land. So, from this point of view, the policy of increasing the price of rice to boost rice
production will only benefit very small percentage of people in Indonesia. Moreover,
during the pandemic of COVID-19, increasing the price of rice becomes impossible,
because with the current price, so many people could not afford it because a lot of
them are jobless, it would worsen the situation if the government increase the price.

Based on my point of view as an Indonesian citizen, the current policies that

are implemented by the government is already proper, even though the government
still has to import the rice. Sometime, citizen will not care about the rice, whether it is
local rice or import rice, for citizen, the most important thing is the price, as long as
they can enjoy an affordable rice price, they will feel self-sufficient, especially during
the pandemic. Because the government has stockpile on BULOG, on this pandemic,
the price of rice will remain stable, so, in my opinion, importing rice is acceptable and
benefit most of Indonesian people. Then, if this is the deal, it will be unfair for the
farmer who own a land, even though they are a minority. In this case, the
government can give them other options to raise their living standard without
increasing rice price, for example by giving subsidies. I think this is the win-win
solution that the government should consider about, so, Mr. Joko Widodo could fulfill
his promise to the farmer to increase their standard of living while the price of rice in
the market will remain stable.

Stefany Rosa Melynda Utomo

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