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 to promote food security, experts have said.
Sumarno, an expert with the Agriculture Ministry, said on Thursday that Indonesia would face severe food shortages and food insecurity unless it took serious action on the continuing conversion of rice fields for non-agricultural activities.
According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the amount of land comprising rice fields across the nation reaches only about 8 million hectares. Sumarno said that the figure will continue to decrease with excessive land conversions.
"It is just not sufficient to produce enough rice to feed around 240 million people in the nation," Sumarno told a workshop on food security held by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).
Annual rice production in Indonesia stands ranged between 33 and 38 million tons between 2000 and 2010, up about 400 percent from the 1960s. Although Indonesia is a rice-producing country, it still has to import 1 to 2 million tons of rice every year due to high domestic consumption.
Sumarno said while other countries in the region, including Thailand and Vietnam, have succeeded in diversifying food consumption, Indonesia still depended too much on rice.
"Unless the government starts prohibiting the conversion of rice fields for non-agricultural activities, we will be facing a severe food crisis in near future, as existing rice fields cannot grow enough rice to feed the millions of people in the country," he said.
Data shows that the amount of agricultural land in the nation continues to decrease rapidly due to massive conversions for non-agricultural activities, such as industry, settlements, and amusement facilities developments.
BPS data shows that 8 million hectares of rice fields, both irrigated and rain-dependent, are currently cultivated by about 23 million farmers.
Indonesia has been facing a declining number rice fields since 1950, when around 4.5 million hectares of rice fields were cultivated by only 6 million families. Poor irrigation also threaten rice production in the country.
Effendi Pasandaran, a researcher from the Agriculture Ministry's agriculture research and development agency, said that with slow expansion of water irrigation, the share of the nation's land comprising irrigated rice fields has not shown significant increases.
The first generation of irrigation facilities founded during the Dutch colonial era increased to 3.5 million hectares from 1 million hectares in only a quite short period of time.
But since that time, the land dedicated to irrigation facilities in the country has not shown significant increase. The BPS records that the land dedicated to irrigation facilities now reaches only 5 million hectares.
"We've seen quite slow progress on water irrigation facility developments, as the government keeps underestimating the capacity of our farmers to build autonomous irrigation facilities," said Effendi.
The deputy assistant for agriculture and fisheries at the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister, Ellyza Mangkudum, said the government had issued several laws and regulations to protect valuable agricultural land, including a regulation that offered incentives to farmers who agreed to join sustainable farming schemes.
"We will give farmers incentives, including agriculture infrastructure, post-harvest treatment support and price guarantees, if they agree to use their rice fields for sustainable farming," she said.
With large land funds available to attract farmers, the problem of the conversion of rice fields remains, however. "In such situation, we've seen that protecting rice fields from any conversions is very crucial," said Ellyza.