The Freedom to Prosper. A Roadmap for Indonesia’s Private Sector Contribution to Food Security

19.4 million Indonesians cannot fulfill their dietary requirements and millions more are vulnerable to malnutrition due to expensive food at low quality. This chronic food insecurity is a result of outdated technologies, complex and oligopolistic supply chains, expensive and low-quality farming inputs, low-skilled farm workers, and uneconomical farm sizes in Indonesian agriculture. Market entry barriers and restrictions on free trade prevent private sector investments for technology and capacity development, which are urgently needed. The proposed project will demonstrate, in particular, how open markets and free trade can attract private sector investment in the food and agriculture sector, which will benefit mostly the poor. They can save up to US $33 billion annually as a result of economic freedom. It also nourishes responsible and virtuous individuals in a free society because entrepreneurship allows them to bring success and flourishing to their communities. The project will conduct 12 studies in the food and agriculture sectors. These studies present arguments in favour of economic freedom and outline a roadmap to increased private sector engagement and enterprise in Indonesian agriculture. Research findings will be disseminated and discussed in 19 events on food and agriculture to an audience of public and private stakeholders, experts, and journalists. 3 videos will be produced to popularise the messages. A monthly index of food prices and the daily media outreach activities carry the messages into domestic news. Lastly, the proposed studies will be compiled in an e-book that aims to inspire the influential Indonesian academic discourse by making reliable free-market arguments widely available.