Video: Sustainable Self-Sufficiency, Government Tackles Land and Irrigation Issues
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - President Prabowo’s administration has affirmed its commitment to strengthening national resilience through a programme of food, water, and energy self-sufficiency. Through a strategy of reinforcing priority programmes in the food sector, the government at the end of 2025 announced the achievement of rice self-sufficiency with production reaching 34.71 million tonnes and a rice surplus of 3.52 million tonnes.
The Coordinating Ministry for Food is tasked with overseeing the programme to realise green food and blue food self-sufficiency sustainably. The Deputy for Food Business and Agriculture Coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Food, Widiastuti, stated that food self-sufficiency requires strengthening the food ecosystem from the upstream to the downstream sector.
The Coordinating Ministry for Food is carrying out cross-ministry/institutional synergy related to the protection of paddy fields and restoring the function of rice fields, accompanied by agricultural modernisation and irrigation improvements. In addition, the development of quality seeds and seedlings is being promoted to address various water and pest issues, as well as encouraging farmer regeneration through improved farmer welfare.
On the farmers’ side, Rumah Tani, an online platform developing sustainable agriculture through innovation and farming communities, highlighted efforts to achieve sustainable food self-sufficiency. Rumah Tani’s President Director, Bahtiar, said the increase in food productivity in 2025 was inseparable from support for infrastructure improvements, policy improvements, and a fairly favourable climate in 2025, despite facing the Godzilla El Niño.
In efforts to maintain the sustainability of food self-sufficiency, two important matters are productivity and farmer welfare, where currently improved welfare is only felt by farmers receiving government intervention support, namely corn and rice farmers. Therefore, it must be ensured that all farmers remain profitable to attract interest in farming.
Meanwhile, the President Director of Agrinas Pangan Nusantara, Joao Mota, noted a number of factors that must be considered to achieve sustainable food self-sufficiency. This relates to land availability and efforts to maximise land productivity to boost food production.
Considering Indonesia’s vast agricultural land potential, the country should already be able to achieve sustainable food self-sufficiency with agricultural production that can not only support food security but also enable it to become a food exporter.