IAAS Wanna Talks is back, and this time we're digging into something that ends up on our plate every single day.
In this episode, "Agriculture & Global Food Uncertainty", we sit down with Rafli Padilah (Deputy Local Director IAAS LC UNDIP 2026) to unpack a paradox that doesn't add up: Indonesia reportedly hit zero rice imports and a full surplus in 2025, Bulog's warehouses are stocked, yet prices at the market still climb past the government's own ceiling. So... are we really food secure, or is this a surplus that only exists on paper?
We also go straight to the ones carrying the heaviest weight, small farmers watching fertilizer prices spike as the dollar strengthens, squeezing their margins before harvest even begins. And when it comes to food estate programs and agricultural downstreaming (hilirisasi), we ask the question that matters most: who actually benefits? Big corporations with capital and market access, or the farmers still stuck supplying raw materials while someone else takes the added value?
Because "swasembada pangan" sounds great in a press release. But real food security isn't measured in production numbers, it's measured in whether farmers, the people actually growing our food, can survive the system built around them.
IAAS,
Think Globally, Act Locally.
Go Future, Go IAAS!