"I am sure that in the next four to five years at the latest, we will be food self-sufficient and ready to become the world’s food barn,” he affirmed.
To achieve this vision, Prabowo has retained Andi Amran Sulaiman as agriculture minister in his Red and White Cabinet. Sulaiman, who served in the same role during the previous administration, will spearhead the nation's drive toward food independence.
Sulaiman at glance
Sulaiman was born on April 27, 1968, in Bone, South Sulawesi. He spent most of his childhood in the neighboring area of Barru, where he lived for seven years.
He then returned to Bone and completed his first 12 years of basic education, graduating from a public high school in Lappariaja in 1989.
He then continued to study agricultural science at Hasanuddin University in Makassar from 1988 to 1993.
He obtained a master's and postgraduate degree from the same university in 2003 and 2012 respectively, all in the same subject. He graduated with a perfect GPA and patented various inventions on pest control. He currently holds five patents.
He was also listed as a lecturer in his alma mater, Hasanuddin University’s Faculty of Agriculture.
With various experiences, he once worked at the state-owned plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) XIV in 1997, with his last position being the head of logistics before deciding to step down.
In 2007, Sulaiman received the Satya Lencana Award in the Agricultural Entrepreneurship field from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY).
He was also conferred the Bintang Mahaputera Adipradana Award by President Joko Widodo in 2020.
Hence, his reappointment as agriculture minister comes as no surprise, considering his track records and extensive experience in the agricultural sector.
Achieving food self-sufficiency
Sulaiman served as agriculture minister in President Widodo’s first term in 2014-2019.
During his tenure, Sulaiman successfully implemented various flagship programs, resulting in rice self-sufficiency in 2017, 2019, and 2020.
On October 25, 2023, he was re-appointed as definitive minister of agriculture, replacing Syahrul Yasin Limpo who resigned after being named a suspect in an alleged corruption case at the ministry.
In his second term, Sulaiman fought to increase the allocation of subsidized fertilizer in 2024 to 9.55 million tons from the previous 4.7 million tons.
The subsidy aims to increase agricultural production and help farmers amid extreme weather phenomena, such as El Nino.
The minister also encourages modern agriculture through mechanization and technology.
Programs, such as pumping, are being intensively carried out in various agricultural areas to overcome water constraints, especially in increasing the planting index on land affected by drought.
To honor such efforts and achievements, President Widodo received the Agricola Medal from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), given directly by FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu on August 30, 2024.
Homework to restore self-sufficiency
In his term of office, President Prabowo is optimistic that Indonesia will achieve food self-sufficiency in the next four to five years.
His belief is based on discussions with experts who agree on the importance of food self-sufficiency to avoid dependence on food imports from other countries, especially during a crisis.
In times of crisis, countries will not sell their food supplies. Hence, he emphasized that Indonesia must immediately achieve food security to face critical situations.
Hence, restoring Indonesia’s position as a food-self-sufficient country is a major challenge for Sulaiman.
He targets achieving the goal in the next three years through various efforts such as expanding planting areas, increasing planting seasons, distributing subsidized fertilizers, providing agricultural machinery assistance, and conducting agricultural modernization.
Most recently, he opened new land in the Merauke and Kalimantan regions to develop the agricultural sector based on the Indonesia-centric principle.
He affirmed that agricultural modernization is a smart strategy to reduce production costs by up to 70 percent, boost efficiency, and accelerate the cultivation process to support national food security.
Moreover, the minister is targeting 50 thousand millennials to become young farmers in Indonesia through agricultural machinery assistance (alsintan) provided to achieve agricultural modernization.
On several occasions, he often spoke about traveling around Indonesia for 11 months to ensure national food safety. Thus, he is optimistic that Indonesia will become self-sufficient in food in the next three years or even emerge as the world’s food barn.
He underscored the need to handle food issues properly to prevent social conflict in the future and disruption of national and state security.
Sulaiman is a firm believer in Soekarno’s statement that "food is the life and death of a nation" as the basis for his works in dealing with current food issues.
With a wealth of experience in the agricultural sector, Sulaiman plays a vital role in realizing Prabowo’s grand vision of achieving food self-sufficiency and becoming the world’s food barn.
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Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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