Food Security Maintained, Malinau Prosperous

Malinau Regent Wempi W. Mawa has initiated the Healthy Agriculture (PESAT) programme to strengthen food security and optimise the potential of Malinau Regency. Through PESAT, Regent Wempi is utilising idle land, forming a task force, and modernising infrastructure to achieve food independence and create jobs. “I learned from a reality of life. Malinau is on the border and has extraordinary potential, but infrastructure is still limited for communities in remote and border areas that are relatively difficult to reach quickly,” Regent Wempi said in Jakarta on Tuesday, 28 July 2026. According to the Regent, optimising Malinau’s potential can achieve regional food security. “I created this Healthy Agriculture programme so that people are healthy in their activities and hopefully healthy from the production they consume, which of course affects productivity and welfare,” he said. Regent Wempi explained that PESAT provides education and space to utilise government and community land that has been unproductive. Additionally, PESAT creates jobs and educates the younger generation to create agricultural innovations so they have the ability to be self-reliant and independent with the spirit of the Malinau Regency Government. “That is our dream for the PESAT programme. And food security is something very fundamental for us, so that food security does not cause inflation,” he said. The Regent stated that 380 PESAT Task Force members are actively involved in agricultural activities, driving the achievement of 36,488 kilogrammes of unhusked rice and 8,610 kilogrammes of maize production. “We recruited and selected this task force from young people or residents of Malinau Regency who are interested in joining,” he said. The PESAT Task Force works on lands spread across all sub-districts in Malinau Regency. Some of them have even become community motivators and inspirers. “They transform knowledge and implement it,” he said. The Regent emphasised that the PESAT Task Force does not focus on just one sector. Some plant rice and maize and wait for the harvest, while others plant horticultural crops. “We increase our productivity so we don’t depend on one commodity, but instead encourage other foodstuffs that can be produced,” he said. The Regent has opened up agricultural access to facilitate the distribution and mobilisation of agricultural products, as well as to improve inter-regional connectivity to reach all communities in Malinau Regency. “We are even now further optimising and recruiting Malinau residents who want to join the PESAT Task Force to broaden its distribution, because some sub-districts are quite far away. If they can produce their own food, that is good economic value,” he said. The Regent is optimistic that the PESAT programme will create a self-reliant community that can meet its own needs. “Because this programme is an implementation of President Prabowo’s Asta Cita for food self-sufficiency, food security, job creation and community welfare,” he said.