Threat of Food Liberalization
The nuance of food liberalization is clearly seen in the Jobs Creation Law.
The nuance of food liberalization is clearly seen in the Jobs Creation Law.
This premise is illustrated in articles in the Jobs Creation Law, which have eliminated many articles on the protection for farmers/fishermen that have so far been mentioned generally in the laws on food, fisheries and agriculture sectors. Especially in the case of food importation policies, food imports no longer taking into account whether domestic stock and production is adequate while in fact this has always been the main consideration.
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Articles that had shielded farmers/fishermen have been eliminated from the Jobs Creation Law. For example, the articles listed in Law No. 19/2013 concerning the Protection and Empowerment of Farmers, Law No. 7/2016 concerning the Protection and Empowerment of Fishermen, Fish Farmers and Salt Farmers, Law No. 18/2012 on Food, Law No. 13/2010 about Horticulture, and so on.
All of these laws strictly require [policymakers] to look into whether domestic stocks and production are adequate before making decisions on food import policy.
The government prioritizes domestic food production to meet food consumption needs.
However, the Jobs Creation Law has changed the articles on the protection of farmers/fishermen related to food imports. The articles on the protection of farmers/fishermen as stipulated in Law No. 18/2012 on Food that are eliminated in the Jobs Creation Law are among others Article 15 (1), "The government prioritizes domestic food production to meet food consumption needs".
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Then Article 36 (1), "Food imports can only be made if domestic food production is not sufficient and/or cannot be produced domestically". Then, Article 36 (2), "Import of staple food can only be done if domestic food production and national food reserves are not sufficient".
Many of the provisions on food import restrictions contained in Law No. 19/2013 concerning the Protection and Empowerment of Farmers, as well as Law No. 13/2010 concerning Horticulture, have also been eliminated in the Jobs Creation Law. Among them are Article 30 (1) of Law No. 19 of 2013: "Everyone is prohibited from importing agricultural commodities when the availability of domestic agricultural commodities is sufficient for consumption needs and/or government reserves".
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Article 88 (b) of Law No.13/2010: "Imports of horticultural products must pay attention to aspects of the availability of domestic horticultural products".
Derivative legal products
The Jobs Creation Law has become a binding legal provision, while many articles protecting farmers/fishermen have been removed. When the articles on the protection for farmers/fishermen are still covering them, their fate is still uncertain, then how will their fate be when the articles on protection are eliminated from the Jobs Creation Law.
Therefore, legal products derived from the Jobs Creation Law that are related to this issue must be properly guarded so as not to make farmers\' lives more miserable.
During the big harvest some time ago, cabbage produced by farmers in vegetable production centers, for example in Rembul and Tuwel villages, Bojong district, Tegal regency, was only valued at Rp 200 to Rp 300 per kilogram, bird\'s eye chilies Rp 3,000 and red chili Rp 4,000.
This year is the most heartbreaking year for vegetable and horticultural farmers in the country. Prices of various vegetable commodities produced by farmers have plummeted. During the big harvest some time ago, cabbage produced by farmers in vegetable production centers, for example in Rembul and Tuwel villages, Bojong district, Tegal regency, was only valued at Rp 200 to Rp 300 per kilogram, bird\'s eye chilies Rp 3,000 and red chili Rp 4,000.
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Many farmers leave their cabbage, bird\'s eye chilies and red chilies to rot at the farm land because the selling price is far cheaper than the cost of picking.
With regard to the garlic commodity, so far the main reason why consumers do not like the garlic produced by farmers in Tuwel village, even though the aroma is superior compared to imported onions, is because the tubers are small. Collaboration between the Tegal Agriculture and Food Resilience Office, Bank Indonesia and Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) succeeded in answering this problem.
The use of double chromosome technology innovated by IPB has succeeded in increasing the productivity of garlic and increase the size of tuber which is more or less similar to imported onions.
The hard-earned increase in productivity and size of garlic faces paradoxical conditions. This effort was hit by a government policy that was not at all pro-farmer. The garlic import quota that has been set did not take into account the availability of domestically produced garlic. In addition, the government is so easy to issue Recommendations for Importing Horticultural Products (RIPH).
Such facts surfaced during a coordination meeting on the development of garlic which was held by the Office of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy of the Republic of Indonesia at the Bank Indonesia office in Tegal at the end of August 2020. At that time, what happened in the field was that there were hundreds of tons of garlic produced by farmers at several garlic-producing areas around Pekalongan. Those garlic were piled up at warehouses, they cannot be distributed.
The fate of the salt commodity is not much different. Article 12 (f) of Law No. 7/2016 concerning the Protection and Empowerment of Fishermen, Fish Cultivators and Salt Farmers affirms that "The protection strategy is implemented through controlling imports of fishery and salt commodities, among others."
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The high salt import quota issued by the government causes the absorption of locally produced salt to be very low. The people\'s salt has been piling up in warehouses because it can\'t be sold.
The year 2019 may be the darkest year for salt farmers in the country. In the midst of an abundance of production due to very favorable weather, the selling price has dropped to its lowest point. One kilogram of salt is only valued at Rp 300 to Rp 500. The main cause of the decline in the price of the people\'s salt is due to the rampant imported salt that leaks and seeps into the local market (Kompas, 5/7/2019).
More liberal
The agriculture and food sector has repeatedly shown its role as a savior of the crisis that plagued this nation. Data from the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) states that during the crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Indonesia\'s economic growth in the second quarter of 2020 was minus 5.32 percent.
However, the agricultural sector has become a savior because it experienced the highest growth in the second quarter of 2020, amounting to 16.24 percent. In fact, it is the only sector that has grown positively from the five main pillars of gross domestic product (GDP).
Therefore, it is only normal for the policymakers in this country to make policies aimed at strengthening the agricultural sector and food security in this country. Not, making policies through regulations that weaken the nation\'s food security as reflected in the Jobs Creation Law, particularly related to food import policies.
Past empirical experience has shown that food import policies are full with rent-hunting activities. In the aftermath, we witnessed a lot of problems and legal cases that have arisen in connection with food import activities. The cases have even gone into multiple cases, ranging from cases of imported rice, sugar to beef.
In the future, we hope no more policymakers will suffer from myopic diseases particularly on food independence, resilience and sovereignty.
Many observers have criticized that in terms of food policies, the Indonesian government is more liberal than the most liberal country. In the future, we hope no more policymakers will suffer from myopic diseases particularly on food independence, resilience and sovereignty.
It’s a disease that views the food’s role in a narrow domain, ignores the importance of food independence, resilience and sovereignty because import access is very easy to do. All of this will become a dark history if the desire for food imports is allowed to constitutionally undermine the nation\'s food independence, resilience and sovereignty.
Toto Subandriyo, Researcher on Socio-Economic Issues, Graduate of IPB and Postgraduate at Jenderal Soedirman University