Will the food crisis keep haunting us?

Will the food crisis keep haunting us?

Sarono, The Indonesian NGO Network for Forest Conservation
(SKEPHI), Jakarta

October 16 has been declared World Food Day. The Ministry of
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries even put up a large banner in
front of its office in Pancoran, South Jakarta, stating: "Enough
water, food guaranteed. Enough food, welfare guaranteed".

A sufficient water supply will indeed favorably affect food
availability. But Indonesia faces a dilemma in which its abundant
water resources are not properly handled, causing water shortages
that haunt most people almost all the time, particularly during
the dry season.

This shortage eventually affects agriculture. Any disruption
in agriculture leads to a delay in food supply. Indonesia has
been one of the world's rice importers since 1996.

Ironically, Indonesia with its vast natural resources
continues to be plagued by drought and many of its people still
live in poverty. Water resource potential based on per capital
national supply index stands at 15,000 cubic meters a year. By
global standards, this water supply level is fairly high.

The Indonesian population, growing by 1.01 percent per annum,
will reach 257 million in 2025. Of the total, 155 million are in
Java, increasing the likelihood of water shortages. Java is
actually the country's largest rice producing area, which is
highly dependent on irrigation.

Today there are 7.1 million hectares of irrigated land. Seven
thousand five hundred cubic meters of water is needed per hectare
in each planting season or 2,500 cubic meters to produce one ton
of rice; the reduction in reservoir levels in 2010 will reduce
rice output by 300,000 tons and in 2070 by 1.74 million tons.

Central Java is the region worst stricken by drought, with a
severe water crisis compared to other provinces. Almost half of
Central Java's reservoirs are in a critical state. Fourteen of
this region's 34 dams are also in a critical condition following
the long dry spell across the archipelago.

The Ministry of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure has
also indicated that if Indonesia wanted to be free from the food
crisis, irrigation networks covering 6.8 million hectares a year
should be maintained. Likewise, 100,000 hectares of new
irrigation channels a year should be built, 200,000 hectares of
irrigation networks a year need to be repaired and reclamation of
50,000 hectares of fields a year on the 2 million hectares of
land that has the potential to be irrigated must be carried out.
If all this can be implemented, Indonesia will be able to
strengthen its food resilience.

The conversion of agricultural land has also caused a drastic
decline in Indonesia's rice production. When the property
business was booming in the 1990s, land function change involved
40,000 hectares. Data from the above ministry shows that in the
last 15 years, 1.77 million hectares of agricultural land in Java
out of the 5.4 million hectares using technical irrigation had
changed its function.

The food crisis is inseparable from erroneous policy measures
in the New Order period. This was when the entire population,
regardless of ethnic origin and culture/traditional wisdom, was
taught and required to consume rice as a staple food.

This resulted in a gross lack of food diversification so that
when rice production no longer met the demand of hundreds of
millions of people, the food crisis lingered.

The New Order's attempt to boost rice production through the
one-million-hectare peat land project in Central Kalimantan for
conversion into paddy fields also failed. It was because the
regime refused to listen when many advised that the land was
technically unfit for agriculture due to its high acidity and
other unfavorable environmental factors.

All the policy blunders now have to be expensively offset by
the present generation. The government in 1984 was proud of its
rice self sufficiency, but now Indonesia imports rice to meet
domestic needs. Food diversification as an attempt to maintain
food resilience has not been implemented. The government's effort
to produce rice in large quantities through the green revolution
flopped as well.

These realities have only made people suffer even more.
Indonesia with its plentiful resources has proven unable to
relieve its population of poverty and food scarcity. Its natural
resources have only been exploited to serve certain groups, while
state debts to be borne by its citizens are mounting.

Food diversification to safeguard food resilience is
imperative. The public should no longer be forced to consume any
one kind of food. Traditional wisdom that supports Indonesia's
food diversification program should be heeded.