Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The government will continue the food estate project in Merauke, Papua. This project was worked on during the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) in 2010.
Later, the food estate in Merauke will be designated as a Special Economic Zone (KEK). In its work, the project will not use full state money and will seek investors in cooperation schemes between the government and private business entities.
“Directed to PPP, public private partnership,” said Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartanto, Tuesday (10/23).
Regarding the historical narrative of the food estate project, it was present in several governments before Jokowi. This means that this work is not something new. Unfortunately, history has also proven that the program did not go according to expectations.
Food Estate Always Fails
The food security program in Indonesia can be pushed back 30 years. In the 1990s, President Soeharto became the first ruler to launch this program. This ambitious program is called Mega Rice Project. Through this policy, Soeharto wanted to turn the peat swamps in Central Kalimantan into a place to develop rice production. It is projected that there are a million peatlands that will be transformed.
According to Jenny Goldstein in “Carbon Bomb: Indonesia’s Failed Mega Rice Project” (2016), scientists actually thought that Mega Rice Project will fail. Soil condition factors are the main cause. However, they were powerless to restrain Suharto’s ambitions.
“This project was carried out without consultation and analysis so it ended in major failure. After the land was cleared and rice was planted, it was discovered that the peat soil was too acidic and lacked the nutrients needed for rice growth,” the book notes. Swallowing Indonesian Forests
As a result, the government suffered huge losses. Local communities are marginalized. Forests were wiped out and this was the start of the greatest environmental disaster of the late 20th century.
“What remains of this program is dry peat soil. As a result, during the dry season this peat land burns. Peat land fires have caused severe air pollution and a public health crisis throughout Asia. In 1997 there was a six-month fire season that shocked the world with photos of smoldering forests and villages, including burning orangutans,” the research authors note Swallowing Indonesian Forests WALHI collaboration.
Don’t stop here. This failure apparently did not serve as a lesson for the next government. In 2010, President SBY launched the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) program. The aim is to ensure Indonesia’s self-sufficiency in food and energy.
Controversy emerged. His argument revolves around the Jawacentric program which seeks to create agricultural land producing rice, sugar cane and palm oil, all of which is used for the Javanese population, not the Papuan people. As a result, the Papuan people who eat sago every day have lost their main source of food because of the government’s actions.
In the end, as expected, this project also failed to produce food crops in large quantities.
“Nine years after its launch, the “MIFEE” project produces almost no food or energy. This is a superficial tactic that has seized and cleared land for logging, or conversion into oil palm or acacia plantations and accelerated other export industries,” the research wrote.
It should be understood that the existence of forests should not be considered empty. In fact, forests are the most valuable land in the world because they contain hundreds or even thousands of living creatures, including indigenous groups. Local residents and indigenous communities have experienced the loss and destruction of their traditional lands and have been left alone to face hunger and the fading of their culture.
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Originally posted 2023-10-11 04:17:59.