ID FOOD Turns to Smart Agriculture to Anticipate Food Crisis

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-run food holding ID FOOD has adopted smart farming practices to increase domestic food production in anticipation of the global food crisis.

President director of ID FOOD, Frans Marganda Tambunan, said that his company has implemented an e-farmer application, a digital system for registering farmer partners and plantation locations, as well as monitoring farmers’ plantations.

"Sustainably improving the agricultural upstream sector with farmers is ID FOOD's attempt to support the government to realize food sovereignty," he remarked in a statement received here on Saturday.

Hence, the holding has continued to strive to increase food production in Indonesia so that the country does not become dependent on imported agricultural products.

The company has also introduced a number of innovations for the downstream sector, including by creating staple food retail products to meet the demand of the community, the president director added.

The company has also strengthened online retail collaboration with Warung Pangan app and other marketplaces for the retail distribution of rice product brand ‘Rania’ and white crystal sugar product ‘Raja Gula.’

"We assess that (there is) a big opportunity in the food retail sector in 2022. It is shown by our company’s revenues, which reached Rp8 trillion (US$534.8 million) -- increasing 15 percent year-on-year (yoy)," Tambunan informed.

ID FOOD is committed to collaborating with the government to handle the threat of the global food crisis by increasing farmer partnerships and expanding farmland for food production to transform the agricultural upstream sector.

In 2021, the number of sugarcane partners reached 23,735 out of the target of 22,367 farmers, thereby realizing 106 percent of the target, while the total plantation area reached 41,509 hectares, an increase of 11 percent from 2020.

As an initial step, state-owned agroindustry company PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (RNI) is acting as the holding company for food state-owned enterprises (SOEs) this year, Tambunan informed.

In addition to the holding company, ID FOOD consists of five food corporations -- PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia, PT Sang Hyang Seri, PT Perikanan Indonesia, PT Berdikari, and PT Garam.

ID FOOD was launched on January 12, 2022.

ANTARA

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