Indonesia seems committed to moving on with its plans to develop a food estate, as well as the country鈥檚 new capital in Kalimantan (Borneo). Proper water management will be key in ensuring their sustainability.
In realizing national food resilience, amidst the threat of COVID-19 as well as climate change, Indonesia seems intent on moving on with its mega projects of developing a food estate.
The Food Estate is an integrated food development concept that covers agriculture, plantation, and animal husbandry in one area. The planned location for the food estate is in Pulau Pisang district in Central Kalimantan, where 165,000 hectares (ha) of the area had already been prepared as an irrigated paddy field. Out of the 165,000ha, only 85,500ha was utilized as productive land. The remaining 79,500 ha of potential land had been abandoned and covered in bushes. The development work will kick start in 2020 until 2022, when the whole 165,000 hectares land area will be optimized completely for food production.
The Food Estate is one of Indonesia鈥檚 National Strategic Programs (NSP) 2020-2024. The Minister of Public Works and Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono, who is in charge of the development of the supporting infrastructure for the food estate, has invited inputs, particularly from Water Resources Professionals, in building better irrigation in the future for a robust Food Estate Design as out of 59,200ha of productive land, only 1.7-2.9tons of rice per hectare was able to be produced.
Besides the PUPR, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are also involved in developing the cultivation technology to produce better quality yields. It is expected that from one hectare of land, rice productivity will increase by two tons.
Another mega project that is in development is the relocation of Indonesia鈥檚 capital from Jakarta in Java island to East Kalimantan. While this project has been delayed to due to COVID-19, plans are still ongoing for the eventual start of the project, with Minister of National Development Planning Suharso Monoarfa saying that his ministry was moving on with planning the development of basic infrastructure in the supporting cities of Samarinda and Balikpapan in East Kalimantan.
There is no question that a well-developed water management plan would be crucial to the sustainability of both projects 鈥� in particular for the food estate, which is second in priority after the development of five national tourism strategic areas within the government鈥檚 NSP. One only needs to look at a similar initiative by former President Soeharto鈥檚 Mega Rice Project (MRP) in the mid 90s for what could happen should the government ignore the need for the right technology and as well as the proper environmental assessment to such a project. The MRP saw thousands of kilometers of canals dug to drain peat soils. However, the nutrient-poor peat soil proved too harsh for the type of rice-cultivation practiced on the mineral-rich volcanic soils of the island of Java and Bali. Worse yet, the government abandoned the project, leaving behind dried-out wasteland that burns at a large-scale nearly annually.
The German water sector, which has more than 150 years of experience in business and contributes to the expertise of the German water industry, has the capacity to expand on Indonesia鈥檚 water management technology, be it for agriculture or for urban development. Back in the 1970s, water protection in Germany was unable to keep pace with the expansion of industrial activity and growth of the population in the beginning of 1970s and pollution reached worrying levels. Through supporting and investing in new technologies and advancing the domestic water industry, the government was able to improve the water quality quickly and sustainably. Today almost 100 percent of the waste water is treated and German households enjoy a high-quality drinking water right from their taps at home.
To learn more about the water industry, 91大神 Indonesia, in partnership with German Waterpartnership e.V. and supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), will hold a digital event series for Indonesian stakeholders from the public and private water sector. To be held from November 2-6, 2020, participants can learn about the latest trends in the German water sector, exchange experiences with German water experts, introduce the Indonesian water sector and its potential for investment and cooperation, and establish new business partnership.
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