Earlier this year, the Indonesian government launched a food estate development programme in areas that are expected to be turned into a national food barn. The government has prepared and opened 31,000 hectares of land in Gunung Mas regency, Central Kalimantan for the programme. 

Central Kalimantan Governor Sugianto Sabran in October said that he is very optimistic that the food estate programme will be successful. “This programme will be able to improve the welfare of the community, because it has a multiplier effect, from increasing employment and farmers’ income to driving growth in other sectors. These in turn will eventually increase the economy as well as the welfare of the community,” the governor said.

However, as reported by CNN, Greenpeace Indonesia said that the food estate programme only leads to a massive deforestation as it increases carbon and gas emissions. 31,000 hectares of land used for food estate may release about 1 million tonnes of carbon.

Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Syahrul Fitra said that earlier, the government cleared 700 hectares of land in Central Kalimantan. This alone had released 61,000 tonnes of carbon.

Syahrul is pessimistic that the project could be the solution and answer to Indonesia’s food crisis. That is because the root cause of the stunted planting area in Indonesia is actually the mass conversion of productive agricultural land for infrastructure purposes.

This is such an irony because on the one hand, the government is “touting” the issue of food security, while on the other hand, it allows the conversion of agricultural land into infrastructure projects. 

“This is not consistent with the food security narrative. Now we are building new lands which will obviously not be productive,” he explained.

In response, Director of Food and Agriculture at the National Development Planning Agency Anang Noegroho Setyo Moeljono said that a food estate is needed so that Indonesia could have food barns outside Java. It is important to diversify food barns in large islands outside Java, such as Kalimantan and Sumatra, in order to avoid food crises in the future.

The food estate programme does not only lead to massive deforestation, but also flooding. In another article published by CNN, Head of Greenpeace Indonesia Forest Campaign Team Arie Rompas revealed that the clearing of 700 hectares of land for a cassava garden food estate project in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan has triggered flooding. 

The project caused a decline in water absorption, especially in the upstream of Kahayan watershed which also protects the middle and downstream areas. Arie said that if the forest coverage in the upstream area decreases, it will also decrease the catchment area. 

“It triggers flooding, as the capacity of the watershed decreases. So whenever it rains, flooding will occur,” he added.

According to Greenpeace data, Palangka Raya has lost around millions of hectares of primary forest in the period 2001-2020.

Forest coverage near watersheds in Palangka Raya has also decreased drastically. The data shows that in 1990, Palangka Raya had 969,836 hectares of forest. However, in 2020, it only has 570,847 hectares of forest left.

Currently, the whole Kalimantan is experiencing major floods, which has occurred since 21 October. Melawi, Sintang, Sekadau and Kapuas Hulu are the worst-hit areas. 

However, the government is very slow in responding to the disaster, rolling out assistance only a month later on 21 November. At that time, Head of the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management Maj. Gen. Surhayanto handed over Rp1.5 billion assistance to local governments whose areas are affected by the floods.