PUBLIC POLICY AND BUREAUCRATIC REFORM IN STRENGTHENING NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between public policy and bureaucratic reform in strengthening national food security in Indonesia. The research employs a library-based systematic literature review, analyzing recent scholarly publications on food policy, food governance, decentralization, institutional reform, intergovernmental coordination, and collaborative governance. The findings indicate that national food security is determined not only by food production and availability but also by accessibility, distribution stability, nutritional quality, environmental sustainability, institutional capacity, and public participation. The study identifies several major obstacles, including fragmented authority, sectoral ego, overlapping programs, weak coordination between central and local governments, unequal bureaucratic capacity across regions, limited data integration, and insufficient accountability mechanisms. These problems reduce the effectiveness of policy implementation and weaken the government’s ability to respond to food crises, price volatility, supply chain disruption, and climate-related risks. The discussion shows that bureaucratic reform must move beyond structural simplification and administrative efficiency toward results-oriented, data-driven, adaptive, and collaborative governance. Strengthening food security, therefore, requires clearer institutional mandates, integrated information systems, improved civil servants' competence, stronger monitoring and evaluation, transparent budgeting, and meaningful participation from farmers, businesses, universities, civil society, and local communities. The study concludes that integrated public policy and comprehensive bureaucratic reform are essential to transforming Indonesia’s food governance from a fragmented, reactive system into one that is coordinated, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. This transformation is expected to improve policy effectiveness, reduce regional disparities, and support long-term national food security amid increasingly complex domestic and global food challenges.