Potential Land Reserves for Agriculture in Indonesia: Suitability and Legal Aspect Supporting Food Sufficiency

Abstract

Information on land reserves is crucial and required to support agricultural development in relation to increased population pressure, food demand, and food security. This research aims to identify and evaluate idle abandoned land based on biophysical suitability, status of land concessions, and forest areas to determine potential land reserves for agricultural development to support food security in Indonesia. The results show that, at the national level, the area of suitable abandoned lands for agricultural extensification is 27.7 million ha, but most of these lands have concession permits and are located in forest areas, so 12.4 million ha are still available, with the largest area being in dry land. The identification of abandoned land by employing satellite imagery in 54 districts resulted in a smaller acreage compared to abandoned land being mapped formally at 1:250,000. After considering land ownership and forest status, both sources resulted in similar areas at a scale of 1:50,000 and 1:250,000, i.e., 6.1 million ha and 6.0 million ha, respectively. It seems that land ownership and forest status adjusted the total acreage of identified land reserves at different map scales. An area of around 7.4 million ha will be required to meet food demand in 2045 by assuming constant consumption per capita. We found about 1.7 million ha as potential land reserves, most of which are in conversion or production forests areas. Converting forests or utilizing drylands could be potential alternatives to deal with the lack of land for food production. Moreover, due to limited wetlands, the use of reserve land in that agroecological zone should be in accordance with its designation, comply with the priority principles, and be supported by government regulations and policies, so that food security can be maintained until 2045.