Prabowo’s National Food Barn Ambition, What’s New?

Prabowo Subianto, the presidential candidate supported by Indonesia Onward Coalition, has made food security one of his priorities if elected president. His target is for Indonesia to become the world's food barn. "We want to revive village food barns, district food barns, regency food barns, provincial food barns, and national food barns," he said at the "Sarasehan 100 ekonom Indonesia" (Discussion of 100 Indonesian economists) event on Nov 8.

Prabowo is optimistic that this program will continue to develop until Indonesia becomes the world's food barn. He even claims the technology to convert wetlands into rice fields is already being implemented in the current food estate project. "We now have the technology, which has been successfully implemented in South Sumatra, South Kalimantan, and is more cost-effective than traditional rice fields," he said. According to Prabowo, Indonesia has millions of hectares of wetlands that can be utilised for rice cultivation, and if successfully transformed, Indonesia can become a global food supplier.