The world population in 2050 is predicted to reach almost 10 billion people so that global demand for food is rising. Indonesia itself may have 305.7 million people. According to Head of Food Security Office (BKP) Dr. Ir. Agung Hendriadi, M.Eng., Indonesia possesses occasions to confront national food challenges and to utilize its potential.
At the 4th International Conference on Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources (FANRes) on Thursday (13/9), Agung conveyed that there will be a transition of people’s life styles in 2050. “A half of world population will dwell in urban areas and a globally demographic dividend, including Indonesia, will occur. People will prefer processed food of animals, fruits, and vegetables. Thus, we have to invest in agriculture and food to cope with the demographic dividend,” he explained.
Indonesia should apply several strategies. “One of them is the efficiency of agricultural production through enhancing efficiency in transportation and logistics, empowering farmer organizations, increasing production efficiency, improving infrastructure, and educating human resources. For instance, we have provided 180 thousands of agricultural tools and machines, saved 674,650-hectare land for agricultural insurance, and controlled food imports which we can cultivate in Indonesia such as rice, corn, soybeans, chilies, shallots , beef, and others,” asserted Dr. Agung.
He also told that Indonesia carries out the strategies and efforts in order to contribute to the world. “We will implement centered agricultural industry development in many areas which are only used for agriculture of a product or some products such as bananas in Sumatra Utara, Lampung, and Jawa Tengah; sago in Papua Barat and Maluku. Hence, a goal of Indonesia to be a world food basket in 2045 can be achieved,” mentioned Dr. Agung.
