Post-Flood Rice Field Rehabilitation in Sumatra Urged as Indonesia's Food Security Strategy

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Deputy Chairman of Commission IV of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Alex Indra Lukman, has urged that the rehabilitation of tens of thousands of hectares of rice fields affected by disasters in Aceh and Sumatra at the end of last year be made one of the strategies to maintain national food sustainability. He views the government’s allocation of Rp 877 billion for this rehabilitation not merely as a physical recovery project for the rice fields. “Agricultural land rehabilitation should not be understood only as a physical recovery project for rice fields, but as part of a long-term national food security protection strategy,” said Alex Indra Lukman, quoted from a press release on Sunday (10/5/2026). Alex stated that disasters damaging agricultural land not only impact local farmers but also affect domestic production. “It affects food production stability, agricultural product distribution, and potential pressure on food prices at the community level,” he added. Therefore, land rehabilitation efforts need to be accompanied by a more comprehensive evaluation of Indonesia’s agricultural infrastructure resilience in facing disasters. According to him, there are several important aspects that the government needs to address. First, the accuracy of rehabilitation targets and the speed of production recovery. Land rehabilitation must ensure it truly reaches the most affected areas and promptly restores farmers’ ability to plant again. Delays in rice field recovery ultimately directly impact farmers’ income and regional food supply stability. The second aspect is strengthening agricultural mitigation infrastructure. The government needs to bolster irrigation systems, drainage, reservoirs, and river basin protection in disaster-prone agricultural areas. “Without mitigation steps, rehabilitation risks becoming a repeated recovery pattern without addressing the root problems,” he continued. The third aspect is post-disaster economic protection for farmers. This is because in many cases, farmers not only lose planting land temporarily but also lose production capital, seeds, and economic survival capacity.