Little incentive: A teller counts rupiah bank notes in Jakarta. The meagre price for soyabeans is driving farmers to other commodities such as rice and corn, says a union chairman. — Reuters
JAKARTA: The government is looking to develop genetically modified organisms (GMO) to boost domestic soybean production and reduce imports in a move experts say is “unnecessary” as it is expected to fail to address key hurdles in national soybean production.
Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas), Arief Prastyo Adi, said Indonesia must prepare to use genetically modified soybeans to reduce dependence on imports.
Indonesia relies heavily on soybean imports as domestic production falls far short of demand.
Last year, nationwide soybean demand was projected at 7,267 tonnes per day, or 2.65 million tonnes for the year, while 2024 domestic production was recorded at just 167,886 tonnes.
Eliza Mardian, a researcher with the Centre of Reform on Economics, said improving structural aspects of soybean trade, upgrading cultivation technology and ensuring that prices remained profitable for farmers were more pertinent than introducing genetically modified soybean variants.
She went on to say that other options for boosting productivity existed as well, including the use of the Mutiara 1 variety, which was developed via irradiation.
Irradiation involves controlled radiation to change a plant’s genetic material.
After screening multiple generations, plants with desirable traits, such as increased yields, are selected and further bred to develop stable, improved crop varieties.
The latter are not considered GMOs, because they do not involve the direct insertion of foreign DNA.
“So far, the government has not paid enough attention to soybean prices,” Eliza said.
“Farmers are not interested in planting soybeans, because it is not profitable enough. There are hardly any dedicated soybean farmers.”
Khudori, an agriculture expert with the Indonesian Political Economy Association, said the National Research and Innovation Agency had produced soybean varieties with production rates comparable to GMOs.
Furthermore, he suggested that the government create supportive regulations and provide incentives for farmers to plant soybeans.
“The problem of low soybean productivity is because planting soybeans is less profitable,” he said.
In 2022, the government floated plans to use genetically modified soybean seeds to boost national production.
At the time, unattractive soybean prices were already a sticking point in Indonesia’s effort to reduce imports of the beans, which are the main ingredients of highly popular Indonesian food staples, such as tempeh and sweet soy sauce, which are affordable protein sources.
Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said after a meeting at the State Palace in 2022 that then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo wanted to encourage farmers to use genetically modified soybean seeds to boost production.
However, there was no follow-up. Soybean imports are expected to reach 2.6 million tonnes in 2025, according to a report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) published on Dec 6.
Indonesian Farmers Union chairman Henry Saragih said farmers were reluctant to plant soybean because the production results were disappointing, at only 1.4 tonnes per ha and for 8,000 rupiah per kg, still inferior to other commodities such as rice and corn.
Soybean consumption in Indonesia is expected to increase to 2.75 million tonnes this year, exceeding an earlier USDA projection of 2.7 million tonnes. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
