Historicising Indonesia’s Position within the Global Agriculture and Food Relations: A Sociological Narrative

The dynamics of Indonesia’s agriculture and food sector cannot be separated from the global context in which it strives to develop. Employing a theoretical framework called the food regime theory, this article seeks to situate Indonesia’s agricultural development, particularly rice and sugar industry, in accordance with the growth and crises occurring within the history of international food relations (1830 – present). Whereas rice has been amongst Indonesians (or at least Javanese people) for a very long time to the extent that political decisions and manoeuvres have most often circled around it, sugar was brought to fame during the Dutch colonial era and has since played a major part in the institutional making of agriculture, trade and industry in the country. This article therefore aims to address the extent to which the rice and sugar agrifood complex conforms to, or contradicts, the existing world structure as delineated by the food regime narrative. In analysing the relationships between Indonesia’s rice and sugar industry and its global context, this article concludes with a remark that Indonesia should make a clear trajectory on how it should position itself amidst the global configuration of international agricultural trade and production.