What should ‘strategic’ in the national strategic commodities constitute?
Indonesia presents some of the most alarming nutrition statistics globally as it struggles with the triple burden of malnutrition, where a high prevalence of undernutrition, overnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies coexist. Yet, nutrient-dense foods are yet to take center stage in the national food policy.
Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma / Unsplash
Agrifood for sustainable development
Rooted in societal history, agriculture plays an important role in human existence, shaping our landscapes, providing sustenance for both people and animals through food, feed, and fuel, and supporting economic growth and development. It is among the most powerful tools to ensure food security, boost market competitiveness, generate employment opportunities, increase household income, and reduce poverty. As a fundamental sector of the economy, agriculture should be able to sustain livelihoods and maintain stability within communities; however, recent multiple shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts and wars, and climate change, have only exposed vulnerabilities of the agricultural supply chain through higher food prices, growing hunger, poverty, and food insecurity.
In countries with rapid population growth, high vulnerabilities to climate change, and increasing prevalence of malnutrition, such as Indonesia, a resilient agricultural supply chain becomes even more vital. Indonesia’s population is expected to reach 319 million by 2045, ranked 97th out of 181 countries as most vulnerable to climate change, and faced with the challenges and impacts of malnutrition, especially stunting in children and micronutrient deficiencies in women of reproductive age. This has profound implications for both individual well-being and national prosperity.
To address this, the Indonesian government has issued the Second Amendment to the Decree of the Minister of Agriculture’s Strategic Plan for 2020-2024 (RENSTRA Kementan 2020-2024) as a direction for improving structural transformation in agricultural development, which positions agriculture at the center of national sustainable development. Supporting practices include viewing agricultural land as innately an industry with multiple factors of production (main commodities, product derivatives, byproducts), and prioritizing seven strategic commodities with high economic value to ensure food security. These strategic commodities include rice, corn, soybeans, chili peppers, onions, sugarcane, and beef or buffalo meat, and are considered significant commodities for the country's economic stability due to their impact on inflation rates.
Food as an exchange rate as opposed to a nutritional fulfillment
However, when considering climate and health targets like reducing emissions and malnutrition, the notion of ‘strategic’ demands further examination.
History tells us that including rice as a strategic commodity seems convenient and logical, but this becomes questionable with research showing its dynamics under climate change. On one hand, under projected climate change impacts, rice yield will likely suffer considerably, and thus adaptation options are imperative for this crop. On the other hand, rice cultivation produces high methane emissions (ie, 84 times greater global warming potential than CO2 on a 20-year timescale), highlighting the importance of implementing mitigation measures in this sector. Other than that, putting rice at the center of national agricultural development further exacerbates our unfitting view to expand the rice hegemony in different regions across Indonesia, where some simply do not fit for rice cultivation (eg, some peat- and swampland). How is a commodity that has exceeded an import value throughout multiple shocks in 2020, 2021, and 2022, and of which prices reaching the highest record in history considered a strategic commodity? What is impeding us from exploring other staples available across Indonesia, home to a rich variety of carbohydrate sources?
Corn provides another conflicting example. While it is widely consumed as a rice substitute (beras jagung), corn cultivation is controversial due to its negative impacts on soil health (eg, capacity for water infiltration, moisture retention, nutrient availability, and the activity of microorganisms). With the necessary use of pesticides and nitrate, corn production has also been polluting water sources nearby to the point where it becomes unsuitable for human consumption.
As for its nutritional value, corn has high fiber content and hence is good for digestion. However, this is no longer true in a processed form, which is the more commonly available form of corn on the market. Processed corn, such as those in oils, syrups, and chips, loses its essential fiber and nutrients during manufacturing processes and thus lacks the nutritional benefits found in its unrefined forms. Additionally, these processed products are often high in added sugars or salt, which can lead to spikes in blood sugar levels and hinder weight loss efforts in diabetic and obese populations. Though this matters less when we look at the numbers: Only 24% of corn production in Indonesia is used for human consumption, as it is primarily intended for livestock feed (60%), while the rest is for other industrial purposes (14%).
How about soybeans?
Of the 3.28 million tons of soy available in Indonesia in 2020, only 0.63 million tons were produced domestically (ie, 81% import; 90% of which are US genetically modified soy). High consumption of traditional soy foods like tempeh and tofu and a growing consumption of soybean meal for the livestock and fishery sectors makes Indonesia the largest soybean importer in Southeast Asia, which explains the rationale behind categorizing soybeans as a strategic commodity. But how do we move from over 2 million tons of imported soybeans to soybean self-sufficiency? Should we look into the prospect of increasing the production of other legumes for tofu and tempe, and of replacing animal feed with other sources that do not compete with food production? Perhaps exploring forgotten legumes like mung beans (kacang hijau), broad beans (kacang koro), black eyed peas (kacang tolo), pigeon peas (kacang gude), or lamtoro?
Similar to soybeans, chili peppers, onion, and sugarcane also make the foundation of Indonesian kitchens, but they are neither staple foods nor nutrient-dense. Sugarcane is particularly problematic because the reason for its low production is multifactorial, including climate anomaly, ineffective innovation in cultivation techniques, and lack of adaptable new superior variety on dryland. Would it be possible to address this challenge by enhancing the production of traditional palm-based sugars (from arenga, coconut, doub, and nipa) that are abundant across the country and more climate-resilient than sugarcane?
From a health and nutrition perspective, only beef or buffalo meats for both meat and milk production meet the criteria of food that provides bioavailable nutrients that can help address stunting and micronutrient deficiencies.
Concerning the climate, the production of ruminant animals, such as cattle, buffalo, goats, and their product derivatives (eg, dairy) has long raised concerns due to their negative climate change impacts. But is the ruminant digestive system inherently bad? A compilation of 292 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study comparisons of “improved” versus “conventional” beef production systems worldwide indicates that net beef GHG emissions could be reduced substantially via changes in management, and success stories exist in countries with a similar profile to Indonesia (eg, Brazil).
So, what defines ‘strategic’?
The selection of these seven commodities portrays food solely as a commodity rather than a source of nourishment. In other words, it emphasizes the economic value of food as the basis for determining strategic and sidelines other important aspects of food, such as its health, ecological, and cultural benefits. Selecting commodities as ‘strategic’ means creating positive feedback loops between these crops and our society: The more we mobilize resources toward them, the stronger their surrounding system will become.
Strategic for people and planet
Looking ahead, RENSTRA Kementan 2020-2024 also refers to five key foods whose consumption potentially rises in the future. This includes rice and various animal source foods (ASF), including fish, tofu and tempe, chicken eggs, and chicken meats. The potential of these foods to address malnutrition with less harm to the environment makes adding them to the list of strategic commodities reasonable. By prioritizing these essential, lower-emission, nutrient-dense food items, the government can stimulate economic growth and simultaneously protect public health and support health equity, especially for the most vulnerable.
Adding nutrient-dense carbohydrate alternatives to rice (ie, roots, tubers, cereals) to the list could also benefit climate and health. For example, cassava and sweet potato are among the most important staple crops grown in Java and have a renowned adaptation capacity to biotic and abiotic stresses and thus to climate change. Nutritionally speaking, these root crops are lower in energy and carbohydrate content than rice but contain larger amounts of essential micronutrients for a balanced diet. In the Eastern regions of Sulawesi, the Maluku Islands, and Papua, indigenous sago-based agriculture is commonly practiced and plays an important role in preserving the rich natural local forest landscapes and ensuring food and nutrition security. Meanwhile, in the semiarid Nusa Tenggara regions, the cultivation of sorghum and millet like foxtail (jawawut) and adlay (jali) offers similar climate and health co-benefits. It allows us to embrace the true nature of Indonesia with a more diversified and culturally resonant carbohydrate landscape.
One pathway to achieving such diversified agriculture and land management systems is the reintroduction of indigenous practices that look at food, livelihoods, health, and the management of natural resources.
The keyword to this is agroecology. But implementing these practices takes work, especially in a country with diverse cultures, bioregions, and soil types like Indonesia. This will require a strong and comprehensive knowledge base, examples of which can be taken through conducting a land suitability analysis and local food mapping on potential cultivation places to identify suitable crops, promote their production, and identify whether such practices are contextually and culturally appropriate.
If Indonesia truly wants to achieve its climate and nutrition targets, strategic agricultural commodities must be used as a tool to optimize the diverse agrifood systems as well as public health and environmental sustainability priorities.
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