The Ministry of Agriculture Will Discuss 3 Food Issues at the G20 Event

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In the 2nd Agriculture Deputy Meeting (ADM), Yogyakarta, 27-28 July 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture, as chairman of the Agriculture Working Group (AWG), will discuss three global food issues.

Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture and head of the ADM delegation Kasdi Subagyono said he would invite G20 member countries to promote the sustainability of the global food system.

“The current food turmoil is testing food security in many countries. For this reason, a transformation of the food system is needed that can help increase resistance to food availability, calorie, and protein adequacy,” Kasdi said in an official statement, Tuesday (26/7/2022).

Furthermore, the second issue that will be discussed at the meeting is related to an open, fair, predictable, and transparent agricultural trade system for the affordability of food prices.

“The fluctuating food prices and widespread export restrictions imposed by several food-producing countries have increasingly made the disruption of global food availability uncontrollable,” he said.

The third priority agricultural issue that will be discussed is the development of innovative Agri perineurial through the digitalization of agriculture to improve the livelihoods of farmers, especially in rural areas.

According to Kasdi, the use of technology and innovation, including the digitalization of agriculture, has an important role in encouraging sustainable production increases.

The high prices of energy and fertilizers, which are predicted to last longer, have also triggered an increase in global food prices. If this happens, Kasdi said that the predictions of various international institutions regarding the increase in the number of the world poor are a necessity.

“Through this G20 forum, it is hoped that it can produce commitments that can encourage the implementation of the main priority issues raised,” he said.

On the other hand, CORE Research Associate Dwi Andreas Santosa said the food crisis that is currently engulfing the world also threatens the food condition of the country, he even said this condition has occurred since last year.

Andreas said that based on the World Food Security Index, Indonesia’s position continued to decline from 62 to 69 in 2021.

“The latest data from the Food Security Index, we continue to experience a decline from 62 to 65 and 69 in 2021,” said Andreas at the CORE Midyear Review 2022 event entitled Maintaining Domestic Recovery Amid the Potential Global Recession online, Wednesday (27/7/2022). ).

In fact, Andreas said, Indonesia itself is in the last rank of the Natural Resources and Resilience country, where Indonesia is in the 113th position out of 113 countries in the world.

When viewed from the production side, said Andreas, national rice production over the last 20 years has stagnated, where there is no significant increase.

“Paddy production does not increase and tends to stagnate or even decline,” he said.

According to him, the national rice production in the last two years has even fallen short of expectations. “In 2020, our production will only increase by 0.09 percent, in 2021 it will be minus 0.42 percent. This is actually a danger for all of us,” said Andreas.

He said that if domestic rice production declined again in 2022, it would have a serious impact on national food security because rice is a very important food component for the people of Indonesia.