Executive Summary

Indonesia faces interconnected food security challenges involving food availability and access, food affordability, food loss and waste, climate-related risks, and unequal access to agricultural resources and markets. These challenges matter because food security is determined not only by agricultural production but also by the resilience of food supply chains, household purchasing power, nutritional quality, environmental sustainability, and the ability of government institutions to respond to emerging risks. The persistence of food loss and waste, climate-induced drought and flooding, and barriers faced by smallholder farmers further increase vulnerability and highlight the need for more integrated and adaptive food security policies.

This paper recommends strengthening Indonesia’s food security policy through integrated digital food systems, including an online platform connecting farmers directly with consumers and targeted digital food subsidies for vulnerable populations; programs to reduce food loss and waste; support for climate-resilient food security innovations and start-ups; improved agricultural storage, logistics, water management, and early-warning systems; and a restructuring of the National Food Security Index using broader indicators aligned with the dimensions of affordability, availability, quality and safety, and sustainability and adaptation. These strategies are expected to improve the efficiency and inclusiveness of food distribution, strengthen the resilience of farmers and vulnerable households, reduce food loss and waste, improve the government’s capacity to monitor food security conditions, and support a more sustainable and adaptive food security system in Indonesia.

Overview – Introduction

Food security is a strategic issue for Indonesia because it extends beyond the availability of food to encompass affordability, accessibility, quality and safety, supply-chain resilience, and the capacity of agricultural and food systems to withstand economic and environmental shocks. Indonesia’s food security is increasingly affected by the interaction of climate change, food price volatility, agricultural productivity constraints, food loss and waste, and weaknesses in storage, logistics, and market connectivity. Climate-related risks, including droughts, floods, changing rainfall patterns, and land degradation, can disrupt agricultural production and increase uncertainty for farmers and consumers. At the same time, fluctuations in food prices can reduce household purchasing power and disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. These challenges demonstrate that food security requires policies that address both immediate access to food and the longer-term resilience and sustainability of the food system.

Food loss and waste further complicate Indonesia’s food security challenge. The manuscript identifies substantial food waste and associated economic and social losses, indicating that improving food security cannot rely exclusively on increasing agricultural production. Reducing post-harvest losses, improving food storage and processing, strengthening distribution infrastructure, and developing mechanisms to redirect surplus food can increase the effective availability of food while reducing unnecessary resource losses. Agricultural productivity must similarly be strengthened through improved technologies, access to finance and agricultural services, better water management, climate-resilient production practices, and stronger market connections for smallholder farmers. These interventions are particularly important where climate pressures and limited infrastructure increase production and distribution risks.

Supply-chain challenges also highlight the need for a more integrated approach to food governance. Weak connections between farmers, markets, logistics providers, retailers, and consumers can increase transaction costs, reduce farmers’ market access, and make it more difficult for the government to obtain timely information about food availability. Digital transformation provides an opportunity to address some of these constraints by connecting producers and consumers through digital platforms, improving inventory visibility, supporting targeted digital food subsidies, and strengthening data-driven government decision-making. Digital systems can also contribute to early-warning mechanisms and more responsive food-security monitoring. Therefore, Indonesia requires a food security policy framework that integrates climate resilience, agricultural productivity, food waste reduction, supply chain strengthening, and digital transformation. These strategic considerations provide the context for the policy recommendations proposed in this paper, which seek to create a more inclusive, adaptive, efficient, and sustainable food security system.

Objectives and Current Challenges

The objective of this paper is to identify the major structural challenges affecting Indonesia’s food security and to propose integrated policy strategies that can improve the accessibility, affordability, resilience, sustainability, and governance of the national food system. The analysis is organized around seven interconnected themes: agricultural productivity, market inefficiencies, food affordability, food waste, climate resilience, governance, and data and digital transformation. These themes are interdependent: constraints in agricultural production can affect food availability and prices, inefficient markets and supply chains can limit farmers’ access to consumers, and inadequate data can constrain the government’s ability to monitor and respond to food-security risks promptly.

Agricultural productivity remains a central challenge because farmers require improved access to agricultural technologies, finance, infrastructure, extension services, water management, and productive resources. Market inefficiencies are reflected in weaknesses in supply-chain infrastructure, logistics, storage, distribution, and direct connections between producers and consumers. These constraints can increase transaction costs, contribute to post-harvest losses, and reduce the economic benefits smallholder farmers receive. Food affordability is another critical concern, particularly for households vulnerable to food crises. Food security, therefore, requires not only a sufficient supply but also mechanisms that enable vulnerable populations to access essential food products at affordable prices.

Food waste poses an additional challenge because substantial quantities of food may be lost or discarded across production, storage, processing, distribution, retail, restaurants, and households. Reducing these losses can improve the effective availability of food while limiting economic and resource losses. Climate resilience is increasingly important as drought, flooding, changing weather conditions, land degradation, and other environmental pressures can disrupt agricultural production and food supply chains. Strengthening water management, climate-resilient agricultural practices, food storage, early-warning systems, and diversified production can reduce these vulnerabilities.

Finally, governance and data constitute cross-cutting challenges that influence the effectiveness of food-security interventions. Fragmented information and limited real-time visibility of agricultural inventories, food availability, and household vulnerability can constrain evidence-based policy responses. Digital transformation, therefore, provides an opportunity to improve food-security governance through digital farmer-to-consumer platforms, targeted digital food subsidies, integrated inventory systems, data-driven monitoring, and technology-enabled early-warning mechanisms. Addressing these seven themes provides the foundation for the policy recommendations proposed in this paper. It supports a shift from fragmented interventions toward a more integrated, adaptive, and data-informed food security policy framework for Indonesia.

Policy Recommendations

Online Digital Portal for Connecting Farmers and Consumers Directly

The Ministry of eCommerce and the Ministry of Agriculture will work with farmers across Indonesia to help set up and enable an easy, streamlined online portal to manage their inventory and ship orders to consumers domestically or internationally.

Farmers will be able to arrange inventory, deliveries, and shipments at the click of a button, enabling agricultural goods to be picked up and dispatched to end consumers in Indonesia.

The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture will work to promote and register farmers on the online portal, enabling them to place orders and manage inventory. Then, with the help of Public or Private Logistics Companies, the product will be picked up from the farms and delivered directly to consumers.

Through this portal, every Farmer’s inventory of food products will be digitized so the government can know food availability in real time and plan accordingly.

Digital Food Subsidy for the People Affected by Food Crises

People using their National Identity Card or Food Card (Provided by the Government) to buy Food items from shops on a subsidy based on their income or are vulnerable to Food Crises.

Connection and Integration of Malls, Marts, Utility Stores, Small Food Stores, etc.; Digital Inventory System with the Food Subsidy Central System of Government. If they don’t have a Digital Inventory System, a government-created Mobile POS will be provided to them, which they can use to connect their Inventory.

When People buy anything from any shop using their personal identity number, eligibility for Food Subsidy will be determined through the Government’s backend Integrated system. Once eligibility is confirmed through the Banking System, real-time settlement of the subsidy amount and incentive to the shop is done from the Government’s end.

The government, through this Digital Food Subsidy, can determine to whom the subsidy will be given, what % of the subsidy should be given, and even which food product the subsidy should be given for. Also, the Government can expand its coverage from Food Products to Pharmacy or Fuel Stations, etc., to provide targeted Digital Subsidy.

Give Free Chicken to People Affected by Food Crises

The government would provide chickens to underprivileged people and then train them to use them to come out of Food Crises.

A chicken is a tied investment or forced saving, nudging people away from specific spending; they require low capital and high turnover. People will use Eggs and Meat from chickens for their Food Consumption, and they can also sell them for earnings.

The chicken intervention cannot be rolled out in a vacuum — there would also be a need to set up supporting infrastructure. Ancillary facilities, such as veterinary services and training support, need to be established. Additionally, serious work must be done to provide people access to markets and strengthen market linkages for selling Eggs and Chickens. There must also be steps to organize people to work collectively to gain from some economies of scale and connect to markets.

Programs to Guide People on the Reduction of Food Wastage

Indonesia ranks as the second largest in food loss and waste worldwide. Indonesia is estimated to produce 13 million tons of food waste every year. Indonesia’s food loss and waste accumulation from 2000 to 2019 was 23-48 million tons/year, equivalent to 115-184 kg/capita/year. Studies find that more than 30% of waste in Indonesia comes from food. This loss results in a loss of IDR 213-551 trillion per year, equivalent to 4-5% of Indonesia’s GDP. Meanwhile, from a social perspective, energy loss occurs due to food loss and waste, equivalent to food portions of 61 -125 million per person (or 29-47% of the population). This contrasts with FAO data, which states that 907 million people in developing countries are experiencing food shortages and hunger. In Indonesia, it is estimated that 10.9 million children under five die every year due to malnutrition, reaching 60%. Around 18% of children under five (3.2 million) suffer from malnutrition in Indonesia.

• Food Donation Programs: The government will encourage restaurants and supermarket owners to distribute excess food. Food manufacturers and retailers can contact food distribution organizations for food donations. Distributing extra food on the shelf can serve two purposes: feeding the hungry and reducing food loss.
• Policy support: Policies support avoiding, reducing, and repurposing food waste. Establishing a National Food Waste Baseline and methodology to measure progress against our goal, and identifying areas to target investment. Showing a voluntary commitment to reduce food waste, enabling legislation to support food waste reduction, and repurposing better.
• Business improvements: Adopt and implement technologies, processes, and actions to prevent and reduce food waste. Identifying areas for progress, supporting technology adoption, encouraging collaboration, and normalizing food waste considerations into business practices.

Restructuring of the National Food Security Index of Indonesia Indicators Based on the Global Food Security Index Indicators.

• Affordability: (Change in average food costs, Proportion of population under the global poverty line, Inequality-adjusted income index, Agricultural trade, Agricultural import tariffs, Trade freedom, Food safety net programs, Presence of food safety-net programs, Funding for food safety-net programs, Coverage of food safety-net programs, and Operation of food safety-net program.
• Availability: Access to agricultural inputs, Access to finance and financial products for farmers, Access to diversified financial products, Agriculture producer prices, Access to extension services, Community organizations, Empowering women farmers, Agricultural research & and development, Public expenditure on agricultural research and development, Access to agricultural technology, education, and resources, Commitment to innovative technologies, Farm infrastructure, Crop storage facilities, Irrigation infrastructure, Access to market data and mobile, Volatility of agricultural production, Food loss, Supply chain infrastructure, Planning and logistics, Road infrastructure, Air, port and rail infrastructure, Sufficiency of supply, Food supply adequacy, Dependency on chronic food aid, Political and social barriers to access, Armed conflict, Political stability risk, Corruption, Gender inequality, Food security, and access policy commitments, Food security strategy and Food security agency.
• Quality and Safety: Dietary diversity, Share of non-starchy foods, Share of sugar consumption, Nutritional standards, National dietary guidelines, National nutrition plan or strategy, Nutrition labeling, Nutrition monitoring and surveillance, Micronutrient availability, Dietary availability of vitamin A, Dietary availability of iron Global Nutrient Database, Dietary availability of zinc, Food safety mechanisms, Access to drinking water, Ability to store food safely, Protein quality, Food safety, Relevant food safety legislation, Food safety mechanisms, Access to drinking water and Ability to store food safely.
• Sustainability and adaptation: Exposure, Temperature rise, Drought, Flooding, Sea level rise, Agricultural water risk, Agricultural water risk, Land, Land degradation, Grassland, Forest change, Soil organic content, Oceans, rivers and lakes, Eutrophication, Marine biodiversity, Political commitment to adaptation, Climate finance flows, Environmental economic accounting implementation, Early-warning measures/climate smart Agriculture, Commitment to managing exposure, National agricultural adaptation policy, Sustainable agriculture, Disaster risk management, Pest infestation and disease mitigation and Risk management coordination.

Expected Outcomes

The proposed food security policies are expected to generate outcomes progressively over the short, medium, and long term. In the short term, success would be reflected in the establishment and initial operation of the proposed digital food platform and targeted digital subsidy mechanisms, increased access of farmers and vulnerable households to relevant services, greater awareness of food loss and waste reduction, and the initiation of climate-resilience and food-security monitoring programs. The government should also begin establishing baseline data and monitoring mechanisms for food availability, affordability, food loss and waste, agricultural productivity, and climate-related risks. These initial outcomes would demonstrate that the proposed policy instruments are operational and reaching their intended beneficiaries.

In the medium term, success would involve measurable improvements in market connectivity, food distribution, household access to affordable food, and the efficiency of agricultural and food supply chains. Farmers should have stronger access to consumers, logistics, finance, technologies, and market information, while vulnerable households should experience improved access to targeted food assistance. Food loss and waste should decline through improvements in storage, processing, distribution, redistribution, and consumer practices. At the same time, climate-resilient agricultural practices, water management, food storage, early-warning systems, and digital monitoring should become increasingly integrated into food-security governance. Improvements in the availability and quality of food-security data would also enable policymakers to identify vulnerabilities and allocate resources more effectively.

In the long term, success would mean a more resilient, inclusive, sustainable, and data-informed Indonesian food system capable of responding to economic, social, and climate-related shocks. The expected long-term outcomes include improved food affordability and availability, stronger agricultural productivity and farmer livelihoods, reduced food loss and waste, greater resilience to droughts, floods, and other climate risks, and stronger coordination among government institutions, farmers, markets, logistics providers, and consumers. A strengthened National Food Security Index would support the continuous assessment of these dimensions and enable policy adjustments in response to changing conditions. Ultimately, the proposed policies are expected to contribute to a transition from reactive responses to food crises toward a proactive food-security governance system that integrates digital transformation, social protection, agricultural development, environmental sustainability, and evidence-based decision-making.