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 adviser said on Wednesday.

Emil Salim, a former environment minister who is now a presidential advisor in Balikpapan, said such conditions show that Indonesia's agriculture is being mismanaged and that ministries need to coordinate to solve the problem.

"We always had to import rice, vegetables and also fruit. We are importing more and more now. But let's take a look at our farmers, they are not being prioritized. How could this happen? What's wrong with our agriculture? What's wrong here?" Emil said on Wednesday.

Emil said that 67 percent of Indonesian farmers work on less than half a hectare of land, indicating that most are small farmers who don't enjoy any profits even when prices of crops soar.

"The number of rice fields has also shrunk. Java could turn into big cities without any rice fields by 2050," Emil said.

"We have to prevent this from happening. A concrete action is needed from, for instance, the Ministry of Public Works and the Agriculture Ministry, to prevent rice fields from being turned into buildings."

Agriculture Minister Suswono said that Indonesia must prepare itself for the 2015 Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community, which requires the country to have a strong agriculture sector given its large population.

Suswono said that Indonesia has set self-sufficiency targets for five commodities – rice, corn, soybeans, sugar and beef – to strengthen its agriculture sector.