Attention to food security is increasingly important today and in the coming years. This is inseparable from global climate change, which has impacted a decline in world food production.
For instance, global cereal production is projected to decrease by one percent by 2050, while the world’s population is expected to increase by one percent over the same period.
Dr. Bayu Dwi Apri Nugroho, an expert and researcher in agriculture, agrometeorology, environmental science, and climate change, is concerned about this condition. He believes that it has the potential to cause food insecurity soon.
“Food security is one of the strategic issues in national development, especially for a developing country like Indonesia with a large population,” he said at the UGM Faculty of Agricultural Technology (FTP UGM) Wednesday (Jun. 19).
According to Dr. Nugroho, attention to food security is necessary because it is closely related to social resilience, economic stability, political stability, security, and national resilience.
Food availability must be built through increased domestic production capacity, improved food reserve management, and food distribution to bridge the gap between regions regarding production and needs.
For him, food issues are not only about economic problems but also political ones. The Indonesian people highly value national independence, including in the food sector.
One of the critical aspects of building food security is the availability of sufficient quantity and variety. Food reserves are a supply source that bridges the gap between domestic and regional production and needs.
“With such a function, food reserves must certainly be measurable, meaning their quantity must be known to facilitate planning and implementing food problem-solving programs,” he explained.
Dr. Nugroho emphasized that one aspect of achieving this is the availability of community food reserves and their ability to utilize existing food sources. The presence of food barns as community food reserve institutions has played a significant role in overcoming community food insecurity.
Area-based food barns are one activity that can be carried out by forming fostered farmers or area-based farmer groups in a village equipped with technology and intensive assistance from upstream to downstream.
One of the latest technological innovations related to the agricultural sector is the Internet of Things (IoT) technology.
“This agriculture concept uses drones and sensor technology for soil and weather to analyze soil conditions such as temperature, pH, nutrient content, air temperature, humidity, and wind direction to provide accurate recommendations to farmers to avoid crop failure and maintain or even increase productivity,” he explained.
Due to the impact of climate change, which causes highly fluctuating, dynamic, and unpredictable weather, Dr. Nugroho mentioned that it is currently necessary to have fast and accurate information about environmental conditions in the field. He said technology is one of the pillars of the area-based food barn concept.
Dr. Nugroho explained that the integrated farming system in the area already has its stakeholders in the food barn, including suppliers of agricultural inputs as providers of inputs with products agreed upon in the food barn, banks, farming insurance, and technology providers that can be utilized by farmers, both in the field and post-harvest, including digital technology for selling farmers’ products.
Additionally, there are guarantees for the sustainability of food barns, which can be provided by the ministry or provincial government, facilitators, such as the local agriculture office, off-takers, as guarantees that farmers’ harvests can be fully absorbed in reasonable prices, and the farmers or farmer groups themselves as implementers within the food barn.
“Agricultural solutions will become real if we implement them comprehensively and integratively from upstream to downstream based on areas and with collaboration between the government, private sector, universities, and farmers as actors in the agricultural ecosystem. The presence of area-based food barns will ensure self-sufficiency and availability for the Indonesian people,” Dr. Nugroho concluded.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Image: freepik.com