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Indonesia AGRICULTURE
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Figure 7. Major Crop Production, 1992
Development Trends
During the 1970s and 1980s, Indonesia followed a wellrecognized trend among developing nations: a decline in
agricultural production as a share of GDP. The
agricultural sector,
however, was still vital for several reasons. The vast
majority of
people lived and worked in rural areas, and most of their
income
was from agricultural activities. Rice, which dominated
agricultural production in Indonesia, was the staple food
for most
households, urban and rural alike. The government
considered
adequate supplies of affordable rice necessary to avoid
political
instability. The New Order's most striking accomplishment
in
agriculture was the introduction of so-called Green
Revolution rice
technology, which moved Indonesia from being a major rice
importer
in the 1970s to self-sufficiency by the mid-1980s.
The 1980 population census indicated that 78 percent of
the
population was located in rural areas
(see Population
, ch.
2). This
share continued to decline during the 1980s, but for a
country at
Indonesia's level of development, urbanization proceeded
slowly.
While agriculture contributed a decreasing share of
GDP--falling
from 25 percent in 1978 to 20.6 percent in 1989--about 41
million
workers, or 55 percent of the total labor force in 1989,
still
found employment in the agricultural sector. Within the
agriculture
sector, food crops accounted for 62 percent of the value
of
production, tree crops for 16 percent, livestock for 10
percent,
and fisheries and forestry equally for the remaining 12
percent of
agricultural production in 1988
(see
fig. 7;
table 23;
table 24,
Appendix).
Data as of November 1992
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