© Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat
Newly planted rice-fields in Tanah Miring, Merauke Regency in 2016. Merauke has been targetted since 2007 for a series of agricultural expansion projects.2016
In July 2020 the Indonesian Government announced that it would be relaunching a policy of promoting industrial-scale agriculture as a means of stimulating the economy, avoiding potential food shortages in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and meeting the challenges that climate change will pose to food security.472 The initial areas proposed for the so-called ‘food estates’ were the site of a similar but failed project from Soeharto’s time – the Mega Rice Project in Central Kalimantan – and an area in North Sumatra Province. In September 2020 it was announced that southern Papua Province was also being targeted (including areas in Merauke, Mappi and Boven Digoel regencies), as well as South Sumatra and East Nusa Tenggara provinces.473
472 Anam K (2020), Arumingtyas L, Hariandja R & Saturi S (2020) 473 Setyorini VP (2020)
147 The scale of the challenge ahead
Food estates: paving the way for future land grabs
