Jakarta. Indonesia must tighten land use planning to prevent competing national programs from undermining one another, Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Nusron Wahid said on Wednesday, warning that the country’s shrinking land availability threatens strategic development goals.

Speaking at the Investor Daily Roundtable in Jakarta, Nusron said four major policy priorities of President Prabowo Subianto rely heavily on large-scale land allocation: food security, renewable energy, industrialization, and affordable housing.

“First is the food self-sufficiency program. It will require land, because crops can’t be planted in outer space,” Nusron said jokingly.

“The second is energy self-sufficiency, which cannot rely on fossil fuels. It requires biofuel crops like cassava, palm oil, or sugarcane — all of which demand land,” he continued.

The third priority, he said, is industrialization, which needs vast areas to build manufacturing zones. The fourth is the government plan to build three million homes for low-income families.

Balancing Competing National Goals
“As minister, my duty is to safeguard land designated for each program — agriculture, renewable energy, industrial areas, and housing — so they can progress together. One program must not obstruct the others,” Nusron said.

He warned that achieving food security requires strict protection of farmland. According to him, 87 percent of existing agricultural land must remain permanent and cannot be converted for housing or commercial property.

The ministry plans to expand Indonesia’s total rice field area to 10 million hectares by 2030, meaning 8.7 million hectares must be protected from conversion, Nusron said.

“Without safeguarding this land, we cannot achieve food security,” he concluded.