What is "Islamic Agricultural Economics" ?

Before we discuss “Islamic food economy”, we will start by describing “Islamic Agricultural Economics”. In this context, food is positioned as part of agriculture. At present, there is a tendency to shift the view into the food and medicine group.

We have known “Islamic Economics” for a long time, but have not understood much of “Islamic Agricultural Economics”. On the google search engine there are no results for "Islam Agricultural Economy".

Islamic agricultural logic is not like ordinary economic logic. One onion bulb is planted, the result is 10 onion bulbs. A pair of sheep are kept, in a few years it could be 10 tails. This is clearly the infinite intervention and blessing of the Life-Giving God. How many thousand pots of vegetables can be produced from a hectare of onion plants, for example. How many mouths and stomachs enjoy it. It's really incalculable. It's impossible to count the delicious taste of vegetables with their delicious aroma.

So, don't look at the harvest from the income alone. One onion into ten onions can be considered a loss if, for example, the price of onions in the market drops again. However, when viewed from the benefits and pleasures he feels, no farmer actually loses. So, farming really is sowing seeds, sowing virtue, doing charity, reaping rewards. Not just investing money for money.

“So ……… Islamic Agricultural Economics is not just planting money, and harvesting money.....”

If farming is understood as growing money for money, then we forget to take into account the damage done. Excessive use of pesticides so as to kill plant fertilizing worms does not count as a loss. Inorganic fertilizers harden the soil, destroying soil biology. Conventional farming analysis does not include this damage. Harvest yields are also only seen as yields, not products.

Islamic agriculture does not destroy nature. Islamic agriculture protects nature. Islam rahmatan lil alamin, farming in Islam revives, not destroys.

Every day people talk about food, there are also many discussions about the economy, there are also many religious studies. However, no expert has yet tried to put it together: “Islamic-food-economy”. Many people discuss food when they talk about agriculture. However, no one has dared to say that what he discussed is classified as a “food economy”.

Meanwhile, daily, although various approaches have been taken, starting from the concept of food security, food sovereignty (farmers' sovereignty over food), self-sufficiency, and others; but the food problem is not over yet. The United Nations reports that there are more than 800 million people in the world suffering from hunger, and 120 million of them are experiencing acute hunger. When compared with the world's population of 7.7 billion people, the number of people who are hungry is more than 10 percent. Ironically, there are 1.3 trillion tons of food wasted in the world every year, or equal to one third of the total world food production. Who wastes the most food (food waste and food loss)? The order from the worst is Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the US, and the United Arab Emirates. SubhanAllah.

This means that the agricultural economics that we have applied is not able to solve the world's food problems. There are many mistakes in this science, for example the attitude that looks down on food as an industrial product. Food is just simply as “production”; not a gift from God that should be highly appreciated. By appreciating the food means we also appreciate the one who produces it. In other words, it is time for us to use the guidelines from Allah in managing agriculture and food.

Ilmu ekonomi pertanian diturunkan dari ilmu ekonomi, dengan mengganti objeknya menjadi barang-barang produk pertanian. Apakah memadai bangun ilmu dengan paradigma dan pendekatan seperti ini diturunkan lagi menjadi “Ilmu Ekonomi Pangan”? Di sisi lain, ekonomi pertanian berbicara tentang barang primer, namun diturunkan dari ilmu yang dibangun dari objek benda sekunder dan tersier (barang manufaktur) ?

Karena itu, pangan pokok mesti keluar dari mekanisme pasar. Setidaknya ada empat alasannya. Satu, manusia memiliki naluri dan moral dasar untuk menolong hidup sesamanya. Orang akan mati jika tidak makan. Maka, pada kelompok masyarakat apapun, pada agama manapun, di desa dan kota, di masyarakat tradisional; kita suka berbagi makanan dan bahan makanan. Sampai di dunia modern ini pun kita masih senang berbagi makanan. Ada pesta-pesta di kota besar dengan makanan berlimpah, gratis. Kita juga senang membayar teman dan tamu.

Masyarakat tradisional tidak pernah menjual makanan sesamanya. Pada masyarakat peramu dan pemburu, bahan pangan biasa dikumpulkan pada satu tempat lalu dikonsumsi bersama-sama. Mereka membuat lumbung pangan komunitas. Kebiasaan ini terus dipelihara oleh masyarakat  sekarang. Kita adakan  arisan, selamatan, dan pesta sebagai mekanisme berbagi makanan.

Agricultural economics is derived from economics, by changing its objects into agricultural products. Is it sufficient to build science with a paradigm and approach like this to be reduced to "Food Economics"? On the other hand, agricultural economics talks about primary goods, but is derived from the science that is built from secondary and tertiary objects (manufactured goods) ?

Therefore, staple food must leave the market mechanism. There are at least four reasons. ONE, humans have basic instincts and morals to help each other's life. People will die if they don't eat. So, in any community group, in any religion, in villages and cities, in traditional societies; we love to share food and groceries. Even in this modern world, we still love to share food. There are parties in the big city with plenty of food, free of charge. We also love paying friends and guests.

Traditional societies never sell food to each other. In gathering and hunting societies, food is usually collected in one place and then consumed together. They make community food barns. This habit continues to be maintained by today's society. We hold social gatherings, celebrations, and parties as a mechanism for sharing food.

TWO, food is always produced from the soil, directly or indirectly. Because actually a piece of land is never really owned by anyone, where we only have the right to cultivate it; then something that is born from not his is certainly also not his in full. There is a social element there. There is a social element to each of these crops.

THREE, religion teaches us not to make staple food as an economic good with a market mechanism. So many suggestions and teachings to entertain guests. Islam commands us to over-produce vegetables so we can share them, and so on.

FOURTH, the added value that is removed from the soil is multiplied from the effort that has been devoted to a human being. A seed is thrown on the ground, and five years later it bears much fruit. Where was the human effort in it? That is, this is almost entirely a blessing from the land, from nature, yes from Allah. "And He has spread the earth for His creatures, in which there are fruits and date palms with mayang petals" (Ar-Rahman: 10-11).

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