Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto stated that Indonesia officially achieved rice self-sufficiency as of December 31, 2025.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Sekolah Rakyat program in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, on Monday, the president said the achievement was reached despite the challenges posed by the El Nino phenomenon and prolonged drought that affected Indonesia throughout 2024 and 2025.
“On December 31, 2025, Indonesia officially achieved rice self-sufficiency. During mid-2024 and 2025, we experienced El Nino and a prolonged drought, yet we were able to overcome these challenges,” the president said during an online meeting with the Presidential Secretariat in Jakarta.
Prabowo said the milestone demonstrated the resilience of the national food sector amid increasing global climate pressures. He noted that the government was able to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather while maintaining the stability of national food production to meet domestic demand.
The president also revealed that national rice production and government rice reserves are currently at their highest levels on record. Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) showed that national rice production as of December 2025 reached 34.71 million tons, resulting in a surplus of around 4 million tons compared with national demand.
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The figure is close to the projected 35.6 million tons of rice production in Indonesia announced by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Meanwhile, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has ranked Indonesia among countries with the highest growth in rice production in Southeast Asia, surpassing Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, and Malaysia.
In line with this achievement, Indonesia did not import rice for consumption or corn throughout 2025. The president emphasized that rice self-sufficiency should be seen not as an endpoint, but as a foundation for strengthening sustainable national food security.
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The head of state added that the government will continue to reinforce the agricultural sector through strategic policies. He expressed optimism that Indonesia would soon achieve self-sufficiency in corn, particularly to meet the needs of farmers and livestock producers.
The government, he said, is also targeting self-sufficiency in other strategic commodities. “We will continue to strengthen our efforts. In the near future, we will be self-sufficient in corn and other commodities,” the president said.
