The government increased the food security budget allocation in the 2026 Draft State Budget by 5.9% to IDR 164.41 trillion. This shows the government's serious commitment to realizing food self-sufficiency, especially in rice and corn.
Food security is one of President Prabowo Subianto's eight priority agendas. The increased budget for food security is not only aimed at increasing production, but also stabilizing prices and improving the welfare of farmers/fishermen.
Of course, the size of this budget allocation requires effective implementation and good inter-agency coordination so that food security goals can be achieved. In particular, optimizing the production of the main commodities, namely rice and corn.
What needs to be observed is that Indonesia's agricultural sector faces challenges in the form of declining production and the number of farmers. Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that rice production, which had reached 54.9 million tons in 2022, fell to 53.1 million tons in 2024.
The same thing happened to corn. Its production also decreased from 16.5 million tons in 2022 to 15.1 million tons in 2024. This trend indicates that it is still difficult for Indonesia to maintain the consistency of food crop production, which is a mainstay in food security.
Resources working in the food sector, for example farmers, have also decreased. According to BPS's 2023 Agricultural Census data, the number of farmers was recorded at 28.19 million people. This number decreased compared to the 2013 Agricultural Census data which amounted to 31.7 million farmers. Meanwhile, the number of smallholders increased from 14.24 million farmers (2013) to 17.25 million farmers (2023).
The increase in the number of farmers with less than 0.5 hectares of farmland, or smallholders, indicates that they are also facing the threat of a shrinking land area. In addition, in terms of age, around 61.35% of the main farmers are over 45 years old. Only 10.6% are under 35 years old. This shows the lack of regeneration in the agricultural sector.
The increased budget allocation for food security signifies the government's strong commitment to addressing these challenges. This budget is not only allocated for subsidies, but also for strategic investments.
The development of agricultural infrastructure, such as irrigation and dams, is expected to restore and optimize less productive agricultural land. In addition, investment in modern technology and agricultural tools is expected to attract the younger generation to enter the food sector.
