WNAM MONITORING: Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs, Zulkifli Hasan, has said that starting next year, Indonesia will gradually stop importing food to support national food self-sufficiency.
“Food self-sufficiency has been the government’s main priority program since the initial target achievement in 2029, but it has been accelerated to 2027. We need hard work and full commitment to achieve it,” he added during a coordination meeting in Bandarlampung, Lampung, on Saturday.
As part of efforts to boost food self-sufficiency, he said, the government has increased the target for rice reserves to 2.5 million tons.
“We have decided not to import rice next year, so that farmers can plant a lot of rice and the price on the market is good,” he informed.
In addition, according to the minister, Indonesia will end imports of consumption salt, sugar, and corn for animal feed in 2025.
For consumption salt, the government is targeting production of 2.25 million tons to meet domestic needs of 1.76 million tons next year.
“There are four commodities that we will not import next year. Later, there will be other commodities whose production will be optimized domestically to bring more benefits for us,” Hasan said.
“So far, we have imported food up to 30 million tons. Our lives depend on imports of wheat, sugar, rice, fruits, coffee—and now is the time for food self-sufficiency, which will be followed by water self-sufficiency as well as energy and downstreaming that we are aiming for in the end,” he added.
According to Hasan, the development of the agricultural sector in Indonesia has been lagging due to many factors.
Therefore, the central government has made food self-sufficiency a priority program with the support of the provincial, district, and city governments.
“Everyone must be involved as a solid team that is keen to collaborate as this is the time to build national food self-sufficiency and leave dependence on food imports,” Minister Hasan emphasized.
