Building Food Security

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

Farmers plant rice in a rice field in Bulusari village, Sayung district, Demak regency, Central Java, on Monday (4/5/2020). The government will give cash assistance of Rp 600,000 to poor farmers each per month.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that national food security is very important when other countries cannot make food reserves available to the global market.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warns its member states to maintain their national food supplies.

Even if global food stocks are sufficient, the Covid-19 pandemic has required total or partial lockdowns. This situation has put heavy pressure on the food supply chain. Global trade is limited because many countries have closed their ports and borders.

Also read : Helping Food Producers

On the domestic market, food production involves networks of farmers, supplies of production facilities, postharvest processing, logistics and distribution, to retail trade. If one link in the chain is hampered, food supplies will be disrupted.

The combination of the two things above makes it difficult for countries to get food from the international market. The situation has become more severe for countries that import large amounts of food because of their large populations, such as Indonesia.

The Covid-19 pandemic increasingly emphasizes that we must expand our understanding of food if we want Indonesia to have food security and sovereignty.

Also read : Farmers Hard Hit by Pandemic

KOMPAS/Lasti Kurnia

SOEs Minister Erick Thohir (center), review Bulog warehouses , in Kelapa Gading, Jakarta, Wednesday (3/4/2020). Erick Thohir ensured that the Bulog rice stock was sufficient for the needs before Lebaran and the anticipation of panic as a result of the corona virus.

Food can no longer be seen simply as a commodity. Food must cover a sufficient variety of nutrients. This approach should guide the preparation of a comprehensive, systematic and integrated strategy and policy, to achieve Indonesia’s goal to be a developed country by 2045.

We need a new approach to understand food security. It is not enough that we stop only at the adequate production of rice or edible oil. It will be very dangerous if we depend on one commodity, such as rice alone.

The new approach is to look at the adequacy of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals in community food based on socio-economic, cultural, age, gender, and professional levels, in addition to local resources.

We, for example, do not need to force the implementation of self-sufficiency in beef because it does not have an advantage there. We can get animal protein from other abundant sources in the country, such as fish, eggs and chicken meat.

We must build our own food security, starting from the household level.

However, food security also deals with consumption related to purchasing power. Public purchasing power must be increased so that the cost of getting quality food is not borne by producers, especially farmers and fishermen. Without an increase in purchasing power, there will be impoverishment of farmers and fishermen and agricultural involution.

Therefore, food handling does not only involve the production sector, but also involves other sectors, such as the processing, trade, finance, technology and logistics sectors. All subsystems from the upstream (on-farm) to the downstream need to be well coordinated in an integrated manner, starting from the central level to the provincial, regency and city levels.

We must build our own food security, starting from the household level. Regions build their food excellence and trade them among regions. In this way, Indonesia\'s diversity will also manifest in food.