The announcement comes as the government prepares to start planting this year on the site of the current national food estate project in the Bornean province of Central Kalimantan. Among the regions expected to become agricultural centers are the provinces of North Sumatra and South Sumatra in the country’s west, and East Nusa Tenggara and Papua in the east. ![]() 23 as part of measures to secure domestic food supplies and end Indonesia’s reliance on imported food crops. President Joko Widodo announced the expansion of the “food estate program” on Sept. JAKARTA - The Indonesian government is doubling down on a plan to establish large-scale agricultural plantations across the country, in a move that threatens widespread deforestation and the disenfranchisement of smallholder farmers. The government is also reportedly considering lifting the forest status of more than a million hectares of rainforest in Papua so that it can clear the area for farmland.To expand the project into North Sumatra and Papua, the government is seeking out private investors but activists say this risks a repeat of the current corporate takeover of Indigenous and community lands.The program is currently centered in Indonesian Borneo, where it occupies the site of an identical project from the 1990s that failed spectacularly. ![]()
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