In the Joko Widodo administrations huge rice self-sufficiency project, farmers seem to have become nothing more than extras. Instead of benefiting from the multi-trillion-rupiah- per-year project, they have been sidelined.

The mantra of achieving self-sufficiency in rice is to increase production as quickly as possible. With each family of farmers cultivating an average of 0.39 hectaresaccording to the 2013 census this is impossible to realize.