Rio Era Deka

Lecturer Faculty of Administrative Sciences

University of Islam Malang, Indonesia

Food Crisis : People Should Take Lessons And Then Apply The Strategy
Many countries in the world are experiencing massive inflation. This inflation was
caused by an increase in the cost of food, energy and other consumer goods. This has become
a major concern by the United States and a number of other developed countries. The
problem is the increase in food prices is a serious problem for developing countries in Africa,
Asia, and America.
According to the Food Security Information Network (2022), global food prices will
continue to increase starting from 2020 to 2022. The increase in food prices is due to supply
shortages caused by extreme weather exacerbated by climate, war and economic shocks after
the Covid-19 pandemic, especially due to supply chain disruptions. global.
In 2022, the World Food Program explained that this trend of rising food prices was
reinforced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the blocking of significant agricultural
exports from the Black Sea region. Global food prices are likely to continue to rise and
threaten millions of people around the world. This increase is very prone and serious to
malnutrition. Besides that
In 2022, this trend is reinforced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the blocking
of significant agricultural exports from the Black Sea region (World Food Program 2022).
Global food prices are likely to continue to rise threatening millions of people around the
world with serious food insecurity and malnutrition. Meanwhile, The United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has published a world food price index based on the
prices of meat, milk, cereal seeds, vegetable oil, and sugar. Both in the real price index
(according to inflation) and the nominal price index.
Historically, real food prices increased rapidly in the early 1970s due to a shortage of
supply and an increase in oil prices caused by policies from the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Food and commodity prices fell during the 1980s
and remained stable until the 2007–2010 rebound in commodity prices. Prior to the current
price spike, real food prices never exceeded levels reached in 1974 (37.4% above baseline
levels in 2014-16). Based on the average price for the first four months of 2022, real prices
were 45.5% above the base level, then lastly 58.5% above the base in April 2022.
According to The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the calculation of the
commodity price index, including food prices, reached 60.2% above 2016 in April 2022.
Supply disruptions caused price increases for certain commodities such as wheat and
sunflower seed oil which could cause a multiplier effect on other commodities.
In Asian countries, people increase their consumption of rice due to rising wheat
prices and higher demand for rice. Later Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to rising food
prices and blocked sources of significant supply of commodities such as wheat, and
sunflower seed oil. Looking at data from the United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) for 2022, it shows that in 2021, Russia and Ukraine will account for 16.5% and 9.5
percent of world wheat exports, respectively.
Learn from the story of Prophet Yusuf AS as an advisor to the Egyptian Empire when
facing a food crisis for seven years. Prophet Yusuf gave input to the King of Egypt to plan
khittah to build strong food security. There are three food security strategies, namely, firstly,
Prophet Yusuf implemented a food production policy. Second, save most of the agricultural
production and the third is a frugal living policy that must be obeyed by all elements of the
country. The implications of this policy include, among others, that domestic food stocks will
be sufficient so that there will not be many imports of food from abroad. Then there will be a
stabilization of our rupiah currency because it has a large enough foreign exchange reserves
from Indonesia's abundant natural wealth.
From the story above, people should take lessons and then apply the strategy to deal
with the food crisis. One of them is by planting various types of food crops on abandoned
lands to mitigate the negative impacts of the dwindling supply chain of global food
commodities. Then when the world faces the threat of a food crisis, it is necessary to have a
strategy to utilize alternative food ingredients. For example, so far, people who consume rice
can consume other foodstuffs as a substitute for carbohydrates. To support this, the
government must ensure the area of land that can be used to grow sorghum. So it does not
depend on other foodstuffs. The last strategy launched by the government to achieve food
availability is securing supply, diversifying food, and implementing efficiency.