Since the Green Revolution, various government supports such as input subsidies and agriculture extension service, have made rice production more attractive to farmers. Since the leadership era of the New Order government, rice production has been set and framed to reach the target of increasing and intensifying national rice production. Through disseminating high-yielding varieties and subsidizing fertilizers and pesticides, it is expected that the target will be met. However, there have been evidences that rice production has contributed to environmental degradation and the marginalization of peasants and landless. Thus, it is intriguing to explore why rice is still the most cultivated commodity in Indonesia and to what extend it is culturally and socially embedded in agrarian communities. This paper will focus on analyzing the degree to which knowledge plays a significant role in food production. It is also interesting to examine how the government manages the discourse of achieving national level rice self-sufficiency. Lastly, the paper will explore whether there are possibilities that revitalizing farmers’ knowledge can improve their welfare.

Keywords: politics of knowledge, rice production, common knowledge, local knowledge, farmers’ creativity