Jakarta – Following a warning by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) that Indonesia may face a shortage of farmers as more and more young people object to becoming farmers, the government h

Alex Blucher – The coffee country of Timor Leste is a world away from the birthplace of permaculture in northern Tasmania but it's taking off there in a big way.

Slamet Susanto and Ruslan Sangadji, Yogyakarta/Palu – The current extreme weather has aborted harvests on hundreds of destroyed of farmland in Yogyakarta and Central Sulawesi, causing farmers in th

Arya Dipa, Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Suherdjoko, Bandung/Surabaya/Semarang – With many rice fields on the brink of harvest failure as a result of this year's extended dry season, rice prices across

Wellington – The New Zealand government is investing 14.5 million NZ dollars (9.43 million US dollars) to help develop Timor-Leste's coffee and cocoa industry, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said

Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – Farmers in Galur, Kulonprogo, Yogyakarta, have refused to surrender to the severe drought that has parched their rice fields and are instead taking advantage of the soi

Ganug Nugroho Adi and Suherdjoko, Wonogiri/Semarang – Tens of thousands of residents in Java have been depending on clean water being supplied by local authorities over the past several weeks, as a

Syamsul Huda M.

Ari Susanto & Vento Saudale, Solo/Bogor/Jakarta – The Central Java government has earmarked funds in anticipation of a clean-water crisis during this year's dry season, which is expected to be

Suherdjoko and Jon Afrizal, Semarang/Jambi – The government's efforts to improve food security are facing a tough road ahead after several regions across the archipelago have reported massive harve

Ganug Nugroho Adi and Agus Maryono, Karanganyar Banyumas, Central Java – A prolonged drought has left thousands of hectares of rice fields dried out and tens of thousands of residents with a clean-

Agus Maryono, Banyumas – Tens of thousands of hectares (ha) of farmland across the archipelago are on the verge of harvest failure due to the prolonged dry season, hampering President Joko "Jokowi"

Satria Sambijantoro, Jakarta – The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has said Indonesia will see a significant increase in rice production this year, giving a push to the no-imports vision of Preside

Andreyka Natalegawa, Jakarta – Indonesia needs to beef up its fight against hunger and malnutrition as the government struggles to ensure the availability and affordability of food, after a United

While oil has been the mainstay of East Timor's economy in the past, it's farming that's transforming rural areas and creating a new breed of entrepreneurs.

While oil has been the mainstay of East Timor's economy in the past, it is farming that is transforming rural areas and creating a new breed of entrepreneurs.

Jakarta – Nearly 20 million Indonesians, of a total population of 250 million, go to bed hungry every night, according to a regional overview of food insecurity in Asia and the Pacific, issued by t

Jakarta – Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the government disbursed Rp 3.8 trillion, or one-fifth of the total of Rp 20.7 trillion in village funds last month, due to administrative glitc

Jakarta – About 70 percent of Indonesia's land consists of infertile soil, says soil expert Nurhajati Hakim.

Yogyakarta – Indonesia could face food crisis in the next three years because each year 100,000 hectares of farmland changes function as the population expands, the Agriculture Ministry has warned.

Linda Yulisman – With its high food self-sufficiency target, the government is considering reviving the stalled "food estate" program of the prior administration by involving private and state-owne

Satria Sambijantoro, Jakarta – Farmers reported declining rice production throughout last year, indicating a challenging test for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's goal to secure the domestic rice s

Yeremi Sukoyo & Hotman Siregar, Jakarta – Intervention from President Joko Widodo is needed to a resolve dispute between two ministries fighting over control of annual village funding to the tu

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo reiterated on Friday his target for achieving rice self-sufficiency for the country in the next three years and said that his gover

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has issued a government regulation that would entitle village heads to a salary.

Mataram – Dozens of farmers from Central Lombok, staged a protest on Friday at the Public Works Agency office in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), demanding the administration fix the

Khoirul Amin, Jakarta – It appears the government will miss its target of attaining food self-sufficiency this year, as data shows the nation of 240 million people is becoming increasin

The newly-passed Village Law is expected to bring change to the grassroots level, after being neglected for years under the New Order regime, a lawmaker has said.

Made Arya Kencana, Nusa Dua – Indonesia's food resilience is considered so weak that it could put the people in jeopardy unless the government immediately took measures to increase food

The government of Timor-Leste (East Timor) plans to provide Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) land for agriculture, as part of an arrangement that is similar to what it already has with Angola an

Ezequiel Freitas – The Asia Foundation is concerned about the government's decentralization program to be implemented in the districts because the program does not value the agriculture

Charlie Campbell – In East Timor, families have learned to dread the onset of November.

Mary O'Shea – Armindo de Deus has worked all his life as a coffee farmer in the Ermera district of Timor-Leste. He is a wiry, weather-beaten man with darting, milky eyes.

Anggi M.

Arya Dipa, Bandung – Farmers and activists in West Java have slammed the government for implementing agrarian policies that favor large-scale producers at the expense of small farmers.

Indonesia's agriculture industry has seen growing productivity over the past decade despite a decline in the number of workers, a national census shows, but the industry remains far beh

Palmerah – The number of farming households over the last 10 years has declined by 5.04 million. Over the same period, the number of agribusinesses has grown by 1,475 companies.

Bali's mystically beautiful rice fields, watered by an intricate, centuries-old subak irrigation system, are near collapse as farmers sell their properties to developers for villas and

Tunggadewa Mattangkilang, Balikpapan – A reduction in land devoted to agricultural use is to blame for Indonesia's increasing imports of staple foods and other products, a presidential

A coalition of organisations has requested the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Commission to take action under its Early Warning and Urgent Action procedures to address the di

Anggi M. Lubis, Jakarta – With less than one year left for the government to achieve self-sufficiency by 2014, failure is already in sight.

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The House of Representatives passed a key bill on Tuesday aimed at empowering the country's largely impoverished agrarian class, but the passage was overshado

Anggi M.

Tassia Sipahutar, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's ambition to make the country self-sufficient in beef, among other main commodities, will likely remain out of sight, tha

Dili – An increase in new, higher-yield seed varieties is helping some rural communities produce more food in Timor-Leste, but greater support is still needed, aid agencies say.

Prodita Sabarini, Wamena, Jayawijaya – A mama walks barefoot under the skin-burning sun in a hamlet in Piramid district, Jayawijaya regency.

Linda Yulisman, Jakarta – The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) says it will soon launch a probe to determine the reasons behind a prolonged spike in beef and cattle pr

Indonesia has rejected a request for an increase in beef import quotas, an industry group said on Friday, urging the government to reconsider its beef sustainability push after prices i

Indonesians with an appetite for beef may find themselves out of luck this month, as skyrocketing meat prices have caused several vendors to close shop and go on strike.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – The government needs to prohibit the conversion of rice fields into housing, industrial complexes or other non-agricultural activities as part of efforts