Al Zaytun: Food Sovereignty Laboratory
By: Dr. Ali Aminulloh, M.Pd.I., ME.
From Islamic Boarding Schools, an Integrated Farming Model for a Healthy and Intelligent Generation
On Sunday, February 22, 2026, the atmosphere at Al Zaytun felt like more than just a routine educational event. In a public lecture held in conjunction with the Continuous Student Training Towards the Transformation of Boarding School Education into Modern Indonesia and the 100th Anniversary of Indonesian Independence, Prof. Dr. Ir. Ali Agus, DAA., DEA., IPU., ASEAN Eng., Professor of Animal Husbandry at Gadjah Mada University and Expert Staff to the Minister of Agriculture for Animal Husbandry, served as a resource person.
In the forum, he presented a topic entitled:
“Integrated Farming: Caring for the Earth, Producing Thayyib Food Ingredients for a Healthy and Intelligent Generation.”
However, the public lecture was not merely an academic presentation. It has become a major reflection on the nation’s future, emphasizing that boarding school education, food security, and the vision of Golden Indonesia 2045 cannot be separated from issues of nutrition, agricultural ecosystems, and the integrity of resource management.
Pesantren as a Center for Civilizational Experiments
In Prof. Ali’s view, Al Zaytun is more than just an educational institution. It is a living ecosystem, a miniature civilization that integrates character education, agriculture, animal husbandry, and spirituality into a mutually reinforcing system.
The transformation of education towards a modern Indonesia is not just about curriculum and digital technology. It must address food independence, generational health, and environmental sustainability.
If the demographic bonus is not accompanied by adequate nutrition and strong character, it can turn into a demographic burden. This is where Al Zaytun is tested and proves itself to be a real laboratory.
Integrated Farming: Real Practice Towards Sovereignty
The concept of integrated farming presented is not just theory. It is a systemic approach: crops, livestock, waste, organic fertilizer, and biogas energy are all connected in a sustainable cycle.
Livestock waste is processed into fertilizer. Cow dung becomes an energy source. Feed is fermented for efficiency and quality. Even innovations like “Gama Cow” and “Happy Chicken Eggs” demonstrate that science, ethics, and sustainability can go hand in hand.
At this point, Al Zaytun truly emerges as an open laboratory, where knowledge is tested in practice, not simply presented on slides.
Thayyib Food and Indonesia’s Centennial Generation
As Indonesia approaches its centenary of independence, the greatest challenges are not merely economic and political, but human quality.
Halal and Thayyib food form the foundation. Animal protein: meat, eggs, and milk, is key to the intelligence and health of the next generation.
In the context of boarding school education, the availability of healthy food is not an add-on, but an absolute requirement for developing a superior generation.
From Miniature to National Model
What is happening at Al Zaytun sends a powerful message: Islamic boarding schools can become centers of transformation, not only spiritually, but also ecologically and economically.
If this model is replicated, food self-sufficiency will no longer be an ideal, but a system that can be built from the grassroots.
Caring for the Earth, Preparing for a Modern Indonesia
The public lecture emphasized one thing: caring for the earth is part of the strategy for building a modern Indonesia.
Boarding education, food sovereignty, and the vision of Indonesia’s 100th anniversary of independence converged in one grand idea: building a generation that is wareg, waras, wasis, Wismo, and wibowo.
And on that Sunday, February 22, 2026, Al Zaytun did more than just host a public lecture.
It acted as a living laboratory for Indonesian food sovereignty.
Merdeka.
Indramayu, February 24, 2026
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