“Rumors that have circulated online saying the government is buying community in Papua Selatan land at only Rp100,000 per hectare under the Merauke’s Food Estate program are not true,” Indonesia’s…
As food security is becoming a more important strategic issue across the globe, Merauke in Papua Selatan (South Papua) Province is slowly carving its name as one of Indonesia’s brightest…
Indonesia’s long-term strategy to strengthen food security in Papua is starting to show tangible results; government rice reserves in the region are about 17,000 tonnes, while the state logistics agency…
Papua is set to play a bigger role in Indonesia’s long-term food security strategy after the government’s plan to develop and optimise around 137,000 hectares of agricultural land across the…
Chritoforus A. Mahuse could hardly contain his excitement when the first rice harvest came to the long idle land. The Indigenous Papuan customary landowner stood in the newly harvested fields…
Yasinta Moiwend, better known in Merauke as Mama Sinta, knew her stance on the government’s food estate project would attract attention when she made it public earlier this year. The…
Farmers across much of Papua are already at work before dawn. Rice fields in newly opened agricultural areas in the lowland of South Papua. In the fertile valleys of the…
Long before the debate reached social media and documentary films, farmers in parts of Papua were already talking about something more immediate: would they finally have enough land, irrigation, machinery,…
From the south of Papua, where there are vast stretches of flat land and rivers that flow into the Arafura Sea, Indonesia’s ambitious food estate project is slowly taking form.…
At traditional markets across parts of Papua, people rarely discuss agricultural policy. They discuss prices. How much rice costs this week. They also discuss whether transport expenses have increased again.…