Agriculture in Indonesia
[1] In 2012, the agricultural sector provides jobs to approximately 49 million Indonesians, representing 41% of the country's total labor force.
[3] The agricultural sector of Indonesia consists of: Industrial scale export commodities such as palm oil and rubber, are mainly supplied by large plantations, while the small scale farmers focus on horticultural commodities such as rice, corn, soybeans, Mango, fruits and vegetables in order to meet the food consumption of the local and regional population.
[2] Located in the tropical region, Indonesia enjoys abundant rain and sunshine most of the time, which are important elements for agricultural products to thrive.
Rice, coconut, sugar palm, taro, tubers, shallots and tropical fruits were among the earliest produce being cultivated in the archipelago.
In Bali, the traditional subak irrigation system was created to ensure that there is adequate water supply for rice paddies.
[25] Next to rice, the bas-reliefs of Borobudur describe other indigenous agricultural products as well, like banana (musa paradisiaca), coconut (Cocos nucifera), sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum'), Java apple (Syzygium samarangense), jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), durian (Durio zibethinus) and mangosteen (Mangifera indica).
[27] Certain endemic Indonesian spices such as nutmeg which is indigenous to the Banda Islands and cloves were highly sought in the West, and prompted the European Age of Exploration.
The Portuguese, through Spanish intermediaries, introduced the New World's products such as chili pepper, maize, papaya, peanuts, potato, tomato, rubber and tobacco into the archipelago's soil.
By the early 17th century, Dutch East India Company (VOC) began to establish its influence within the archipelago, by building trading offices, warehouses and forts in Amboina and Batavia.
[32] In the mid-19th century, the Dutch East Indies government implemented cultuurstelsel which required a portion of agricultural production lands to be devoted to export crops.
Establishment of sugarcane, coffee, tea, tobacco, quinine, rubber and palm oil plantations was also expanded in the colony.
All efforts in the agricultural sector was focused in meeting basic needs for food (rice) and clothing (cotton).
The Imperial Japanese authority attempted to increase rice and cotton production in the occupied Indies by mobilizing labor.
[3] The Indonesian Republic also nationalized many of its colonial economic infrastructures, institutions and businesses and inherited the agricultural system of its predecessor, the Dutch East Indies.
During the Suharto era, the government launched the transmigration program that relocated landless farmers from the overpopulated Java to the less populated Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua, thus expanded agricultural farms in the outer islands of the territory.
With a large number of its population still working in the agriculture segment, Indonesia has great potentials of attracting foreign investments.
To ensure food security, the government fills the gap by importing from neighboring countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
[44] Horticulture, which covers fruits and vegetables production, holds an important role in the local Indonesian economy and in the attainment of food security.
Its native fruits include durian, mangosteen, rambutan, salak, banana, jackfruit, mango, kedondong, jambu air, buni, jamblang and kecapi.
Prices might be cheaper in Bandung and Bukittinggi as they are closer to horticulture farms but are significantly more expensive in Pekanbaru and Balikpapan which are located far from production centers.
Recently, owing to a varied Indonesian topography, non-tropical horticultural products such as apple, strawberry, honeydew, grapes and dragon fruit are grown in the cooler mountainous region of Indonesia.
Currently, Indonesia imports much of its horticultural needs from Thailand (durian, carrot and chili pepper), China (garlic, orange and pear) and from the United States (soybean and apple).
To protect local farmers, the Indonesian government applied protectionist policies on import settings for horticultural products, as well as restricting ports of entry.
While the New World spices such as chili pepper and tomato were introduced by Portuguese and Spanish traders during the Age of Discovery in the 16th century.
It is located near the equator and with numerous mountainous regions across the islands which creates suitable micro-climates for the growth and production of coffee.
[62] The deforestation in Indonesia is caused by logging industry, either legal or illegal, and in turn also contributed by the conversion of natural rainforest into agricultural lands, especially palm oil plantation.
[63] The large-scale expansion of palm oil plantations has been accused as the culprit behind the clearance of Indonesian rainforests, which destroyed critical habitat for endangered species like rhinos, elephants, tigers and orangutans.
The country's top export products are palm oil, cocoa, coffee, rice, spices, tea, coconuts, fruit and tobacco.
[73] Temperatures, potentially rising by up to 1.5 °C by the year 2050 in a high-emission scenario,[74] have a direct influence on agricultural productivity and thereby local food security.
[74] Connected to missing or excessive rainfall patterns, soil degradation significantly reduces the fertility of land and therefore agricultural productivity causing economic losses.
