Rice production in Indonesia reached 34.71 million tonnes in 2025, exceeding the country’s annual demand of 31.19 million tonnes. (Wikimedia Commons pic)

JAKARTA: Indonesia said on Tuesday it will halt a project to raze several million hectares of forest to clear land for rice production, saying it had reached self-sufficiency levels of the staple grain.

The government launched a programme in 2024 to stop relying on rice imports within five years by clearing three million hectares of land for paddies.

Indonesia is one of the world's most forested countries and, as such, a major absorber of planet-warming carbon emissions from mankind's burning of fossil fuel.

It aims to become a net carbon sink by 2030, with forests and other land use absorbing more carbon than they emit.