Indonesia stops clearing forest for rice after stocks hit 5.3 million tonnes

Indonesia has stopped a plan to clear forest for new rice fields. Hashim Djojohadikusumo, the president's special envoy for climate and energy, and the president's brother, said on 6 October that the government sees no further need to expand rice into forest areas. The strategic reserve, he said, has reached about 5.3 million tonnes and is still rising, past the storage capacity of state warehouses.

The programme being halted was large on paper. In 2024 the government launched a push to end rice imports within five years by clearing land for paddies. Figures in the reporting differ on the exact hectare target: one account says three million hectares, another refers to a planned two-million-hectare food estate. Hashim's line at the Indonesia International Sustainability Forum in Jakarta covers both versions. There will be no further extensification into forest. The shift is to intensification on land already farmed.

The harvest numbers he is using

The National Food Agency's figures are the ones that make the halt arguable. Indonesia produced 34.71 million tonnes of rice in 2025. Annual demand was put at 31.19 million tonnes. That is a surplus of about 3.5 million tonnes in a single year, in a country that has treated rice imports as a standing tool. President Prabowo Subianto has called the result an important victory, and has said domestic production met national demand three years ahead of a 2029 target.

A reserve of 5.3 million tonnes is not the same thing as a surplus on the plate. It is grain the state has in hand. Hashim said it now exceeds warehouse capacity, which is a storage problem rather than a shortage problem. The policy response he named is not more land. It is seed. He said the government would use new varieties and superior seed for rice and soybeans, and he set soybean self-sufficiency at about three years. Sugar, he said, is harder.

The price and fertiliser levers

Two administered prices moved with the announcement. The floor price of rice was raised by 50 percent, from 4,000 rupiah a kilogram to 6,500 rupiah, about 36 US cents at the rate used in the Jakarta Post account. Fertiliser costs were cut by 20 percent. Those are the tools aimed at existing paddies: a higher price to the grower, and a lower cost for the input that raises yield. They do not require a chainsaw.

What the halt does not include is a published figure for forest already cleared. Hashim and the wire accounts both left that number out. Until the ministry releases it, the area converted between the 2024 launch and the 6 October stop is unknown. That missing hectare count is the difference between a cancelled plan and a reversed one. A cancelled plan saves the forest still standing. It does not restore what has already been cut.

Why the carbon file is attached

Indonesia is one of the larger forest countries, and its climate target includes becoming a net carbon sink by 2030. El Nino years have already shown how quickly cleared and dried peat and forest burn, and how far the smoke travels. A rice programme measured in millions of hectares sat directly on that target. Stopping it removes one planned source of loss. It does not touch illegal clearing, oil-palm conversion, or the fires themselves.

The family detail is part of the decision chain, not a side note. Hashim is Prabowo's brother and the climate envoy. The announcement came from him, at a sustainability forum, not from the agriculture minister in a harvest release. That is who carried the message that forest clearing for rice is over. The agriculture side of the same policy is the floor price, the fertiliser cut, and the seed claim.

Imports are the test that comes next. A country that produced 34.71 million tonnes against demand of 31.19 million, and that holds 5.3 million in reserve, can go a season without buying. A bad wet season, a warehouse shortfall, or a price spike in cities can put imports back on the table even with the forest plan closed. The 6 October decision binds the land-clearing file. It does not bind the trade file.