National Food Barn
President Joko Widodo has repeatedly expressed his concern about the possibility of a food crisis in Indonesia as an impact of the Covid-19 health crisis, which no one knows when it might end.
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Workers move rice from Pamanukan who just arrived at the Cipinang Rice Main Market, East Jakarta, Thursday (21/5/2020). Perum Bulog estimates that rice stocks until June will reach at least 1.8 million tons.
President Joko Widodo has repeatedly expressed his concern about the possibility of a food crisis in Indonesia as an impact of the Covid-19 health crisis, which no one knows when it might end. In addition to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 16 other international organizations have also warned of a food crisis in their report, Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2020.
Is it then true that Indonesia will experience a food crisis? And is developing a national food barn on a 1-million-hectare area of peatland the answer? As mentioned in “The 2020 Food Crisis” article (Kompas, 21/4/2020), the writer believes that the world food crisis will not occur in 2020 as it did in 2007-2008 and 2011. The requisites for a food crisis are a sharp decline in world food production and a sharp increase in food prices.