Bustanul Arifin is Professor of Agricultural Economics in the University of Lampung (UNILA) and Professorial Fellow in the Graduate School of Management and Business at Bogor Agricultural University (MB-IPB).  Dr Arifin is also Board of Founder/Senior Economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), an independent research institution aimed at providing assessments on public policy issues related to economics and finance, based in Jakarta-Indonesia.  Dr. Arifin has over 25 years experience on comprehensive range of research in agricultural and resource economics, food security, political economy and development strategies.  He has a wide range of consultancy experience in the fields of economics and development issues for international agencies such as: World Bank, USAID, JBIC, UNDP, ILO, GTZ, ICRAF, WWF, DANIDA, RECOFTC, etc.

Dr. Arifin holds a Ph.D. in resource economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) in 1995 and first degree (Sarjana) in agricultural economics from Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) in Indonesia in 1985.  He has served as Director of INDEF, Adviser to the House of Representative (DPR-RI) for the commissions of agriculture, industry, and trade, and Chairman of National Committee of Futures Trading.  He has completed his assignments as Visiting Professor (under Fulbright Senior Research Scholarship) in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2002-2003) and as Visiting Professor (under Australian Leadership Awards Fellowship) in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, Australia (2007-2008).

Dr. Arifin has published 39 titles of books in economics and development issues, including a sole author of 15 books. He has also authored over 80 articles in scientific journals, written and presented over 100 research papers in international conferences. He has been a public speaker on agricultural economics and development-related issues, presenting more than 300 research papers in national seminars, workshops and conferences in Indonesia. Dr. Arifin is now serving as Executive Council of the Asian Society of Agricultural Economists (ASAE), Indonesian Society of Agricultural Economics (PERHEPI) and Indonesian Economist Association (ISEI). He currently contributes his expertise in civil and community services, such as: National Innovation Council (KIN) in the Office of the President, Head of Expert Group at Food Security Council, and Adviser for the National Team of the International Trade Negotiation, etc. He is also a well-known analyst on economic and development issues for national television and radio stations, and has written over 500 articles and columns in magazines and newspapers.