Indonesia Best Practices

Fast Facts

• Mayor: Ramdhan Pomanto
• Population: 1,432,189
• Area: 175.77 km²
• GCoM Signatory since 2019
• Makassar is one of Indonesia’s most prominent hubs for maritime trade through Makassar’s sophisticated seaport developments.

Background

Makassar City is an exemplary model for Indonesia’s maritime development through its advanced port systems. The improvement of Makassar ports is crucial to enhance the seamlessness of Indonesia’s global supply chain and global value chain. However, Makassar ports are also vulnerable to intensive climate issues including prolonged dry seasons (effects of El Niño) and rising sea levels. Thus, distributed resources from the seaports, including food commodities will be posed to severe threats of scarcity and inflation. Other than Makassar’s maritime resources, the local government must also raise awareness on the significance of various sources utilisation of food commodities to sustain food security.

For Makassar, food security is a top priority to prevent hunger issues across the city. To ensure the availability of food, preservation of commodities must be conducted to mitigate food insecurity in Makassar. The impact of El Niño currently hinders Makassar’s food security as crop production is starting to diminish due to prolonged drought. The low production rate of crops eventually led to skyrocketing rice grain commodity prices to around IDR 7,200 – 7,400/kilograms (USD 0,46 – 0,48/kilograms).[1] Hence, the Makassar City Government must prepare a call for action to multi-level stakeholders starting from local citizens to international institutions for immediate action to ascertain food security, resiliency, and sovereignty across Makassar.

Solutions Implemented

The Makassar City Government’s focus on food security priority is reflected in their innovative efforts in mitigation. From the National Government Agency’s perspective, The Makassar Food Security Department (Dinas Ketahanan Pangan/DKP Makassar) has already preserved around 5 tons of rice at Makassar’s Logistics Affairs Agency (Badan Urusan Logistik/Bulog Makassar).[2] Preserving rice commodities has ensured the availability of food across Makassar to mitigate the impact of prolonged drought. Supporting the efforts from the national level, the Mayor of Makassar City, Ramdhan Pomanto along with DKP Makassar have urged the citizens of Makassar to improve food security through joint contributions. The involvement of locals in food security has proven to be the most efficient way of preserving commodities consistently.

To achieve food security goals as well as other sustainable goals, The Mayor of Makassar introduced Program Lorong Wisata (Tourism Alley Programme) as a medium for Makassar citizens to implement their local innovations on tourism attractions. The establishment of Lorong Wisata has been a valuable practice in ensuring food sovereignty and tackling food inflation through citizens’ contributions.[3] The programme provided Makassar locals with urban farming facilities and cultivation ponds for aquaculture goods including lobsters across the alleyways.[4] With multi-level contributions between the government and the locals, Makassar’s distinguished sustainable programme of Lorong Wisata has proven to be one of the most innovative yet resourceful best practices for food security in Indonesia.

The development of Lorong Wisata for food security has been periodically campaigned by the Makassar Government. As of October 2023, there are 15 sub-districts in Makassar that provide Lorong Wisata to be utilised for food production by the locals.[5] With over 8,000 alleyways developed as part of Program Lorong Wisata, the Makassar City Government has prepared an additional 1,000 alleyways for Lorong Wisata development until late 2023.[6] Amid the uncertainty of climate issues including prolonged drought across Indonesia, the even distribution of tourism alleys will ensure equal rights for people across Makassar to sustain their own food in achieving food sovereignty goals.

Results and Lesson Learned

The production rate of commodities through Lorong Wisata has shown impressive results in ensuring the availability of food for Makassar City. Based on DKP Makassar’s survey, the urban farming section of Lorong Wisata has produced 11 types of vegetable commodities per August 2023. The produced vegetables comprised chillies (1,082.2 kilograms), water spinaches (786.6 kilograms), bok choys (457.5 kilograms), lettuces (407.6 kilograms), tomatoes (709.6 kilograms), cauliflowers (225.6 kilograms), celeries (149.2 kilograms), corns (240.5 kilograms), okras (27.7 kilograms), mustard leaves (104 kilograms), and eggplants (683.2 kilograms).[7] The diversity of food production from Lorong Wisata is part of Makassar citizens’ creativity and contribution towards food sovereignty for the city.

The innovative development of Lorong Wisata has also garnered widespread trust and valuation across Indonesia. The Indonesia Ministry of Home Affairs appreciated The Makassar City Government’s efforts in sustainable development goals through Lorong Wisata. Furthermore, the urban farming system of Lorong Wisata is deemed by the Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Tito Karnavian, as a benchmark for other Indonesian local governments on local innovation in sustaining food as well as food sovereignty.[8] Trust-building between local and national governments for Program Lorong Wisata is a result of collective efforts of multi-level stakeholders to consistently achieve food security and sovereignty in Makassar.

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[1] Ganet Dirgantara and Anwar Maga, “Mengamankan Stok Pangan di Tengah El Nino”, Antara News Makassar, 14 October 2023, https://makassar.antaranews.com/berita/507492/mengamankan-stok-pangan-di-tengah-el-nino

[2] CNN Indonesia, “Wali Kota Makassar Pastikan Stok Beras Aman hingga Akhir Tahun”, 14 September 2023, https://www.cnnindonesia.com/ekonomi/20230913164224-92-998635/wali-kota-makassar-pastikan-stok-beras-aman-hingga-akhir-tahun

[3] Makasar City’s Communications and Information Agency, “Miliki Beragam Manfaat, Lorong Wisata Makassar Wujud Percontohan Inovasi Daerah”, 10 May 2023, https://diskominfo.makassarkota.go.id/miliki-beragam-manfaat-lorong-wisata-makassar-wujud-percontohan-inovasi-daerah/

[4] Makassar City’s Fisheries and Agriculture Department, “Pendampingan Pengembangan Budidaya Lobster Air Tawar di Lorong Wisata Kota Makassar”, 12 December 2022, https://dpp.makassarkota.go.id/berita/pendampingan-pengembangan-budidaya-lobster-air-tawar-di-lorong-wisata-kota-makassar

[5] Nur Suhra Wardyah and Anwar Maga, “DKP Makassar Galakkan Kemandirian Pangan di Lorong Wisata”, Antara News Makassar, 5 October 2023, https://makassar.antaranews.com/berita/505785/dkp-makassar-galakkan-kemandirian-pangan-di-lorong-wisata

[6] Makasar City’s Communications and Information Agency, “Miliki Beragam Manfaat, Lorong Wisata Makassar Wujud Percontohan Inovasi Daerah”, 10 May 2023, https://diskominfo.makassarkota.go.id/miliki-beragam-manfaat-lorong-wisata-makassar-wujud-percontohan-inovasi-daerah/

[7] Nur Suhra Wardyah and Anwar Maga, “DKP Makassar Galakkan Kemandirian Pangan di Lorong Wisata”, AntaraNews Makassar, 5 October 2023, https://makassar.antaranews.com/berita/505785/dkp-makassar-galakkan-kemandirian-pangan-di-lorong-wisata

[8] Muhammad Hasanuddin and Tasrief Tarmizi, “Mendagri Sebut Lorong Wisata Makassar Percontohan Inovasi Daerah”, Antara News Makassar, 29 April 2023, https://www.antaranews.com/berita/3512535/mendagri-sebut-lorong-wisata-makassar-percontohan-inovasi-daerah