Agriculture Minister (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman is optimistic that Indonesia will achieve food self-sufficiency in less than three years.

Food self-sufficiency refers to a country's ability to meet its own food needs for its population. To date, the government has ramped up several efforts to accelerate this goal.

Key Point

• Government Strategies
• Elevated Production Levels

Courtesy Source: www.goodnewsfromindonesia.id/2024/07/29/indonesia-siap-sambut-swasembada-pangan-mentan-tidak-lebih-dari-tiga-tahun

However, climate change impacts, particularly El Niño or prolonged droughts, pose significant challenges. El Niño can drastically reduce water supplies and disrupt irrigation systems for rice paddies.

Government Preparations

The Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) is speeding up the implementation of irrigation systems or pumping solutions as a quick fix for prolonged droughts caused by heatwaves. Additionally, the government is increasing the area of planting (PAT) as a strategic measure to mitigate the risk of drought affecting national rice production.

Food productivity is also being boosted through several measures, including:

1. Increasing the allocation of subsidized fertilizer from 4.5 million tons to 9.5 million tons
2. Distributing free seeds
3. Using agricultural tools and machinery (alsintan)
4. Installing water pumps to anticipate prolonged droughts

Minister Amran explained that the pumping system being promoted by the government is a historical first. The government utilizes 20,559 pumps daily, successfully irrigating 582,528 hectares of land.

This system involves pumping water from rivers that never dry up to be channeled to the rice paddies. President Joko Widodo has also called for the acceleration of this program, noting that pumping has proven effective, enabling crops to be planted three times instead of once.

"The President has visited seven regions with pumping systems and has requested that this program be expedited because the results are evident, with planting increasing from once to three times," he stated.

Increased Production

Thanks to these efforts, national agricultural production has significantly increased. According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) and the National Food Agency (Bapanas), Indonesia is expected to experience a surplus of 700,000 tons in the next two months.

This significant increase is expected to reduce dependence on foreign imports. With higher domestic production, it is hoped that import figures will also decrease.

Minister Amran emphasized that the distribution of pumps has already irrigated 500,000 hectares of rice fields in West Java, Central Java, East Java, and several other regions. The number of pumps will continue to increase to support local farmers through proposals from regional governments.

"Imagine if 500,000 hectares of land are pumped, producing 5 tons per hectare, that could yield up to 5 million tons and reduce imports. The effectiveness is already visible; production has increased during the pumping program," Amran concluded.

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