Never become dead mice in the rice barn: the quest for turning nutritious local food into fuel for Indonesia’s HR development

This paper attempts to discuss valuable momentum on how local foods could fuel Indonesia’s quest for developing quality human resources (HR). By law, Indonesia is expected to be an advanced economy by 2045. However, the current trajectory, especially regarding Indonesia’s current incompetent HR, does not support this policy target, which is recently exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. This exploratory paper draws primarily on Fahmida et al.’s study (2020) on Indonesia’s local foods. It argues that, currently under-preferred, Indonesia’s local foods are expected to be a viable solution to this concerning circumstance. Indonesia has a plethora of locally affordable and accessible nutritious local foods that could significantly help the nation develop competitive HR. Cross-sector convergence and coordination, including civil society, religious communities, and academics, need to be strengthened to promote healthy food intake based on locally available nutritious foods