Overcoming Food Entropy: Why Indonesia's Food Security Needs a Physics Approach

When we think about food security, the first things that come to mind are usually cultivation, quality, and the quality of food ingredients, from compost to food management methods. However, entering 2026, global and domestic food challenges have transformed into complex system problems influenced by climate and environmental degradation. In terms of science education, food security is no longer merely a matter of biology, but rather how we manage matter, energy, and technology on agricultural land to mitigate crises. Based on data from the National Food Agency (Bapanas) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Indonesia’s food performance shows a stark contrast between production potential and system efficiency. National rice production data for last year (2025) reached a record high of 34.71 million tonnes with a surplus of 3.52 million tonnes due to a massive agricultural intensification programme. However, this actually resulted in losses for farmers, as critical supply chain analysis from Bapanas indicates that Indonesia still loses around 20–30% of post-harvest yields due to poor management of temperature, humidity, and logistics. In physics, this represents a massive waste of energy and material systems. Consequently, throughout the first quarter of 2026, extreme changes in soil moisture and solar radiation intensity due to local weather reduced the productivity of non-irrigated land by up to 15%. In physics, we are certainly familiar with the laws of thermodynamics. Agriculture is fundamentally an open system that converts solar energy (radiation) into chemical energy (food). Indonesia’s food security failures often occur because we frequently ignore physical variables in the field. The 20–30% post-harvest food loss is a result of failing to control the rate of heat transfer and humidity during storage. Commodities such as horticultural products and grains rot quickly because the rate of cellular respiration increases in direct proportion to the ambient temperature. Without affordable renewable energy-based cooling technology, production surpluses will always be wasted as entropy (system disorder/damage). Furthermore, Indonesian agriculture is still often dominated by conventional methods. Measurement of soil air content, pH, and soil porosity still relies on guesswork. In practice, the efficiency of nutrient absorption by plant roots depends heavily on soil air capillarity and surface tension, which are domains of fluid mechanics. As prospective educators and science scientists, we must provide useful education to local communities, especially farmers, to improve Indonesia’s food system. By promoting science and technology literacy in agriculture, it is hoped that future farmers will not only farm manually but will also be able to read data from physical instruments, such as capacitance-based soil moisture sensors or light intensity meters. Additionally, innovation in appropriate technology is needed in the food cultivation process by designing grain dryers based on the controlled greenhouse effect (solar dome dryers) or automated irrigation systems based on Pascal’s law to conserve water in dry regions like East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and West Nusa Tenggara (NTB). The 2026 data shows that Indonesia possesses significant capital in terms of food production quantity. However, this security is fragile if not supported by science-based efficiency. The Agricultural Physics (Agrophysics) approach is no longer an option but a necessity that must be implemented to break the chain of food loss and prevent climate pollution. Food security is about how we master the laws of nature to ensure the nation’s future.