Agricom.id, BOGOR – Director of Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB), Arif Satria told that the food security index of Indonesia keeps getting better. Based on Global Food Security Index (GFSI), the food security index in Indonesia in the last four years or from 2014 to 2019 increased and got better than Ethiopia, Philippine, Pakistan, and other developing countries.
"In 2014 the food security index of Indonesia reached 46,5 index, in 2018 it reached 54,8 index and in 2019 it reached 62,6 index and Indonesia was in the 62th of 113 countries in the world or at the 12th of 23 countries in Asia Pacific," he said in Banda Aceh when giving public lecture in University of Syiah Kuala, Saturday (20/2/2021).
For information, data of GFSI in 2019 revealed that Indonesia was in the 62 or higher than Ethiopia at 91 (49,1 index), Philippine at 64 (61 index), Pakistan at 78 (56,8 index), and India at 72 (58,9 index).
Arif also mentioned that the food security index is different from food sustainability index because the two have different indicators. Food security index is seen from 4 groups of indicators, such as, affordability, availability and quality, and also natural resource security. Food sustainability index is known by three groups of indicators, such as, food loss and waste, sustainable agriculture, and nutrient issues. The two were published by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and the latest index was from the data in 2019 and 2018. It means that the two indexes described the situation in the period.
He also mentioned that the position of Indonesia in 2018 which was in lower rank than Ethiopia because it was seen from food sustainability index not from food security index.
"Based on the food security index in the same year, Indonesia was higher than those countries mentioned above,” he said.
The Achievement in Agriculture
Arif did appreciate what Ministry of Agriculture in Kabinet Indonesia Maju has achieved namely in the Covid-19 pandemic. The facts and data showed that agriculture is the sector that took big parts or as the cantilever of economy nationally.
“The data released by Central Bureau of Statistic (CBS) showed that agriculture in the fourth quarter of 2020 increased 2,59 percent in year on year (yoy). The supporting sub sector is the food plantation reaching 10,47 percent. Hopefully it would increase in 2021. For other sectors were not so good, agriculture is the savior of the bad economic recession in the third quarter,” he mentioned.
He also mentioned that the successful policies and programs in agriculture were not seen from the contribution to the gross domestic product only but also from the exports. CBS revealed that the exports in agriculture in 2020 increased 15,78 percent from the previous year or from Rp 390,16 billion to be Rp 451,77 billion.
"It means that the government and other stakeholders, namely the farmers could maintain the work of agriculture to be exist to save the economy nationally,” he said.
He continued that it needs to advantage the moment of pandemic to strengthen the food sovereignty. The economic policy should be focused to develop agriculture to get enough food, employment, decrease the poverty and increase the exchange.
“It means that the agriculture should be the locomotive of economy nationally, source of national prosperity. It needs new strategy, agro-maritime 4.0 as the response to the progress of industrial revolution 4.0. He also mentioned that it needs to accelerate the transformation heading to agro-maritime 4.0,” Arif told. (A2)
