Water and Land Footprint Assessment of Food Loss: A Case Study on Indonesia

Abstract

In Indonesia, the agricultural sector plays a crucial role as the backbone of food security in the country. Like most developing countries, Indonesia also faces many inefficiencies in its agricultural sector, which interfere with its productivity. One of the most common efficiency problems is the high quantity of food loss. Over 8 Mt of food is wasted in Indonesia before it reaches the consumer, resulting in food and agricultural inefficiencies as well as water and land resource inefficiencies, as the agricultural sector relies on these two resources. This study attempted to assess how much water and land are wasted due to food loss in Indonesia. Based on the calculation, Indonesia's food loss annually results in around 14,670 Mm3 of water loss. Food loss in cereals utilises the highest portion of green water (~6,500 Mm3), blue water (~600 Mm3) and grey water (~1,000 Mm3), followed by pulses and oil crops. Similar to the land footprint, cereals food loss left around 0.70 Mha of land and 0.50 Mha for pulses and oil crops. This result indicates that the government needs to pay special attention to reducing food loss in those food crops and managing its resources during cultivation.