Jakarta. Rather than food security, it would be best for Indonesia to focus on finding ways in which it can feed its people without having to rely on imports, according to political expert Achmad Nur Hidayat. 

Food security refers to when people have access to sufficient and nutritious food at all times. The Indonesian government has been wanting to achieve food security.  However, the government should refrain from being way too focused on food security, Achmad said.

The analyst said that the government should pay more attention to achieving food self-sufficiency as imports of rice -- the country’s staple food -- climb. For reference, Indonesia is planning to import 5.17 million tons of rice this year. 

“The government’s food policies which have been way too focused on food security without food self-sufficiency has resulted in overreliance on import,” Achmad said.

In the short term, this policy might have helped the country secure supply and stabilize rice prices. However, the import could take a toll on local farmers in the long run as they would struggle to compete with the cheaper imported rice. The rice assistance distribution by the National Food Agency (Bapanas) and the state logistics agency Bulog also reflects the government’s lack of coordination in food policies. According to Achmad, the Social Affairs Ministry should be the one who is responsible for distributing the aid.

Achmad said the government needed to make food policy reforms to be more focused on food self-sufficiency. This would help cut Indonesia’s reliance on imports, and eventually, the country would become self-sufficient in rice production