Government Protects Rice Field, Safeguarding Food Security

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta – President Prabowo Subianto held a meeting with Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Nusron Wahid to discuss measures to control the conversion of rice fields, as part of efforts to safeguard national food security and support food self-sufficiency. The meeting took place at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday, January 28, 2026.

In a press statement following the meeting, Nusron said that Indonesia has lost hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice fields over the past five years due to land conversion, primarily into industrial areas and residential areas, underscoring the urgent need for stronger land-use controls.

“We reported on the control of land conversion, as rice fields across Indonesia between 2019 and 2024 were lost and converted into industrial and residential areas, totaling approximately 554,000 hectares. At the same time, the President has a strong vision to achieve food self-sufficiency,” Nusron said.

He explained that the government has adopted a number of strategic measures based on a Presidential Regulation on the national medium-term development policy, which mandates the protection of Sustainable Food Agricultural Land (LP2B).

“If we refer to Presidential Regulation Number 12 of 2025 on the 2025 - 2030 National Medium-Term Development Plan, it states that rice fields classified as Sustainable Food Agricultural Land are agricultural and food land that must be permanently protected and cannot be converted for any purpose.The minimum portion must be 87 percent of total designated rice field. The rice field base refers to all designated rice fields," he added.

Currently, the proportion of Sustainable Food Agricultural Land designated in provincial spatial plans stands at only around 67.8 percent, while at the regency and city level it is even lower, at approximately 41 percent. This situation is considered threatening the sustainability of Indonesia’s productive rice fields.

Nusron further stated that the government has temporarily designated all rice farmland as protected land in regions that have not yet met the required protection threshold. This policy will remain in effect until local governments clearly determine which areas are permanently protected and which may be converted.

“For regions that have already included Sustainable Food Agricultural Land in their spatial plans but have not yet reached the 87 percent level, we ask them to immediately revise their spatial plans within six months. For what purpose? So that the figure reaches the 87 percent level, so that our rice fields are not lost," he said.

Nusron emphasized that strengthening spatial planning policies is a strategic move by the government to protect rice fields as a vital national asset, while ensuring long-term food security and sustainable food availability.