If a country can’t
feed itself, who can? Duncan Graham
Nearly 20 million Indonesians are
still malnourished. 28 per cent of Indonesia’s children are underweight and 42
per cent suffer from stunted growth. UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
How can this be in a nation which has the planet’s most
fertile island in its vast archipelago, and millions of skilled farmers harboring
centuries of local wisdom?
If a country can’t produce and distribute enough nutritious
food at prices the poor can pay, where can it turn? To rethinking the way it
does agriculture – or importing from those with knowhow.
Thailand and Vietnam, with far advanced mechanical farming
methods, are selling rice to Indonesia - an internationally awkward admittance of
policy failure.
These and other disturbing facts have led foreign and local
agricultural economists to suggest Indonesia rethinks ways to achieve food security.
The report Feeding
Asia by the Perth-based policy think tank USAsia was released earlier
this year at the Jakarta In the Zone forum
attended by NGOs and politicians, including former President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono. The report says:
We must collaborate better on
agricultural research and the diffusion of valuable knowledge and methods. We
need to create more efficient supply networks in the region. Frameworks for
collaboration must be strengthened. Many nations in the region have radically
expanded their agricultural output and have knowledge to share.
Japan and Australia were singled out as countries keen to
offer their research and expertise.
On the surface a noble aim. The needs are pressing, and
recognized by Joko Widodo when campaigning for the presidency. All data continues
to show demand growing, resources shrinking and costs rising as they have for the
past 13 years.
A shortage of basic commodities, or prices beyond reach of
the majority, can create serious c communal strife. Rice isn’t just a
carbohydrate – it’s a social and political force.
The 32-page report was prepared by Australian ‘innovation
consultancy’ Knowledge Center. It highlights
the positive impact on India and Pakistan of the 1960s Green Revolution which
introduced new strains of wheat, ramped production and saved millions from
starvation.
So the report’s proposals have
been packaged as a Second Green Revolution. Not the ideal title as it recalls
the days when change was pushed by Soeharto’s Bimbingan Masal (BIMAS - mass guidance) program.
Farmers tend to be conservative folk
with long memories. Even today villagers
recall the military backed Green Revolution campaigns of the 1970s forcing them
to use the Peta and Pelita high-yielding hybrids, expensive
artificial fertilizers and pesticides of which they had little understanding.
At first yields increased dramatically and Indonesia stopped
importing rice. But the downsides
included nitrogen runoff polluting rivers, the balance of nature upset and the socially-corrosive
loss of autonomous decision-making.
Minor pests, like hoppers, became a major problem. Government subsidies for fertilisers were
withdrawn. Maladministration was rife. El Nino weather changes caused unforeseen
upsets.
Badan Urusan Logistik (Bulog)
was created as a government agency to hold stocks and stabilise food prices,
restricting farmers’ ability to trade on the open market.
Now Indonesia is again a rice importer, an undesirable
situation in a nation prickly about ‘sovereign rights’ and its ‘great power’
image with a population projected to reach 322 million by 2050. By then more than 70 per cent will be
urbanites.
So who is going to grow the food, how and where? While Java’s fertility is famous, the outer
islands have dry acidic soils and limited rainfall.
There won ‘t even be enough water for irrigation if the
report writers are right, while clogged infrastructure will remain till the
government resolves to fix roads and rail.
Delegates learned that 35 per cent of food is wasted because
fresh produce can’t reach householders.
In East Java’s highlands bundles of vegetables are carried downhill on
bicycles because pick-ups can’t reach market gardens on unmade roads.
Even big urban supermarkets use small van deliveries; the
roads don’t allow big trucks which could reduce costs through economies of
scale.
Refrigerated transport remains rare in rural Indonesia. Fish,
fowl and beef traders in traditional markets have no cool rooms. Sellers fan
meats to ward off flies and keep milk in Styrofoam boxes. They rely on early-morning shoppers to clear
stock before it goes bad and becomes a health issue.
Another waste is in reticulation, with nearly half of
Indonesia’s piped water reportedly lost during transmission.
Growers with no clear land title can’t access essential credit.
The report says ’many small holdings are not properly registered, especially
outside Java; less than 25 per cent of rural landholders have registered
tenure.’
Policy planners considering all these interlocking issues
also have to weigh in fickle weather.
Climate change is creating droughts and floods in areas where extremes
were once rare.
Nationalists may wince but Indonesia already relies on
imports - like grains to make breads and instant noodles for local consumption
and export. Western Australia is Indonesia’s granary because wheat can’t thrive
in the tropics. The Northern Territory, with its vast pastoral plains, is the
Republic’s offshore beef ranch.
An example of positive partnership has been seed potatoes
from Western Australia boosting yields in Java from ten to 35 tonnes per
hectare. Speakers warned proposed tariffs could threaten this advance.
One possible solution discussed at the forum is ‘urban
farming’. Vegetables are grown
hydroponically using recycled water in large climate-controlled buildings close
to markets and labor.
Known as Indonesia
Berkebun the farms already operate in parts of Jakarta and other major
cities, but only industrial scale projects will make a difference. Foreign
investment in agriculture can be a politically touchy issue.
The report and forum’s take-home message is that the dream
of self-sufficiency cannot be achieved while the population soars and little is
done to ease the difficulties. Whatever the name, new systems will need farmers
on board, not off side.
Getting belligerent with a country which feeds you is not
the smartest idea. Nor is protectionism which
preserves inefficiencies. Collaboration delivers harmony along with food.
*First published in The Jakarta Post 23 Augst 2016)
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