Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs, Zulkifli Hasan, said that Indonesia can achieve food self-sufficiency if the environment is well maintained according to its designation.

"Food can be self-sufficient if the environment is good," Zulkiflisaid on Thursday, March 13, 2025.

He said food self-sufficiency is difficult to achieve if the environment is damaged or not treated according to its intended use.

He cited the example of the upper reaches of the Bekasi River, most of whose land has been converted from forest to buildings.

This condition causes the environment or nature to be unable to absorb rainwater optimally upstream, which has an impact on flooding in downstream areas that occurred in Bekasi in early March 2025.

"If a flash flood comes, Bekasi, Bogor will lose their rice fields. Because the upstream is the center, so it is very dependent on the environment," he said.

He said that currently the government is fixing several aspects to realize a clean government to protect the environment in order to achieve food self-sufficiency. Then the aspects that are being fixed include spatial planning permits and environmental management.

River basins revitalization

Minister of Environment, Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, said that one of the causes of flooding in Bekasi was the natural landscape in the upper reaches of the Bekasi River.

He said the total area of the Bekasi upstream river basin reached 28 thousand hectares (ha). However, currently the forest area of the Bekasi upstream river reaches 4 thousand ha. This amount reaches 3.35 percent of the total area of the Bekasi upstream river from upstream to downstream of 145 thousand ha.

This figure is very far compared to the minimum area of forest in the river basin area, where  the forest area should have a river basin of 30 percent of the entire area from upstream to downstream.

"So the upstream watershed must return with monitoring steps. Furthermore, fellow supervisors and experts will examine in detail what steps we must take related to this landscape," he said. 

Hanif cited that operational activities in the river basin area are still running, but must comply with regulatory recommendations from the Ministry of Environment, in order to restore the function of the area.

"So it doesn't mean dismantling it, but revitalizing its function," he said.