Jakarta. The government’s decision to halve the budget allocated for the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency or BMKG could have a detrimental effect on Indonesia’s dream of becoming self-sufficient in food production, according to an expert.

President Prabowo Subianto has instructed his government to slash spending by Rp 306.7 trillion (about $18.8 billion) for this fiscal year. The retired army general wants the money to get rechanneled to social programs, particularly his signature free school meal rollout. Almost all ministries and government bodies are not safe from the budget cuts. BMKG, which is in charge of releasing weather forecasts and disaster detection reports, is no exception.

“Budget cuts for BMKG would of course take a toll on its operations. The agency will then struggle to monitor the weather or any climate change impact,” Media Wahyudi Askar, a director at think-tank Celios, told an online briefing on Monday. 

He said: “Our farmers and fishermen really need all this [information]. And of course, this is directly related to food security. So budget efficiency in the wrong places can have negative consequences.”

State news agency Antara recently reported Indonesian lawmakers had agreed to cut BMKG's spending by half. BMKG originally got to spend no more than Rp 2.8 trillion. It can now only use up to Rp 1.4 trillion following the budget efficiency measure. 

Media reports showed that BMKG’s spokesman Muslihhuddin said that the cost-cutting measures could take a toll on the agency. Their accuracy on weather forecasts as well as potential disasters like earthquakes and tsunami could also drop from 90 to 60 percent. Despite having almost 600 disaster detection tools scattered across the country, many of them are already outdated. The budget cuts would also greatly affect its maintenance.

Amid Celios’ warnings, food self-sufficiency takes a great deal of Prabowo’s attention. Prabowo not long ago inked a presidential instruction on food self-sufficiency. The document included Prabowo’s instructions to his ministers to ramp up irrigation system development in the country. The retired army general is also hoping to achieve food self-sufficiency by 2027. Indonesia also wishes to stop importing rice -- a staple food -- starting this year.

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