Agenda Setting for Food Estate Policy in Multiple Stream Frameworks (MSF) Perspective: Case in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

Agenda setting is critical to public policy due to impacts on subsequent policy processes. In 2020, The Indonesian government has issued a food estate policy in response to FAO's warning of a food crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This policy has also been included in the National Strategic Project (PSN) as stipulated through Presidential Regulation No. 109/2020. This policy aims to create new paddy fields in order to maintain national food stock needs, especially rice, by prioritizing intensification and extensification of paddy fields. Now this program has received serious attention and is considered to have failed. The failure of food estates can often be attributed to the lack of community involvement in the planning and implementation of such projects. Applying the multiple streams framework, this study found two agenda setting failures, namely failure to define the problem from policy entrepreneurs and skipping the policy formulation stage. The study recommends revisiting agenda setting and adding participation streams to open up space for deliberation in decision-making through the participation of Dayak customary council institutions through their local wisdom and knowledge.