The archipelago has 77 types of vegetables high in carbohydrates. With a food policy based on diversity, we should never experience shortages.
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Kompas/Riza Fathoni
A food seller serves customers in Jatinegara, Jakarta, on Thursday (22/2). Food commodities such as steamed sweet potato, peanuts and corn are rarely found in urban areas and could replace rice and wheat flour.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Neglecting the diversity of local foods has brought Indonesia to the brink of a crisis. Apart from their dependency on imported rice and wheat, several regions have been identified as areas vulnerable to a food crisis. The recent case of the malnutrition and health emergency in Asmat, Papua, must serve as a wake-up call on a problematic food policy.
Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Susana Yembise told Kompas on Monday (26/2) that Papuans, including the Asmat people, lived on local foods such as tubers and sago in the past. However, the government’s 2003 subsidized rice assistance for the poor (raskin) had accelerated the people’s shift to consuming rice.
“Since the raskin program was initiated, Papuans no longer cultivated local foods, but waited for their monthly raskin ration,” she said.
This shift in food consumption occurred not only in large cities with an adequate rice supply, but also in remote villages. “So, if the raskin supply arrives late in remote regions because of transportation problems, tragedies like the one in Asmat could happen in other regions, too,” Yohana explained.
According to her, the best solution for Papua’s food crisis would be to reintroduce local customs. “The people must be asked to cultivate sago once more. It is healthier than rice,” she said.
Kompas/HERU SRI KUMORO
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Food wealth
The Papua case highlights the high risk of a uniform food policy based on rice. “The current trend in the consumption pattern for dietary carbohydrates among Indonesians is rice and wheat. This is in spite of the country’s wealth of local foods that is nutritionally better [than rice],” said Drajat Martianto, a food security expert at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture’s (IPB) public health department.
Data at the Agriculture Ministry’s Food Security Agency shows that Indonesia has 77 food crop sources of dietary carbohydrates, 75 types of fats, 26 pulses, 389 fruits, 228 vegetables and 110 spices. The country has the second most diverse food sources after Brazil.
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Tubers such as sweet potato and taro are good sources of carbohydrates. Indonesia also has fruit sources of carbohydrate, such as banana and breadfruit. Stem vegetables, including sago, are also a high source of carbohydrates.
IPB agronomy professor Bintoro said that sago was a plant indigenous to Indonesia with high potential. “We have almost six million hectares of sago plantations. One hectare can produce between 20 and 40 tons of dried sago powder,” said Bintoro, who is also the chairman of the Indonesian Sago Society (Massi).
Bintoro said that sago was highly productive. While 12 hectares of rice fields was needed to produce 30 million tons of rice, only 1 million hectares of sago plantation was needed to produce the equivalent yield. “You need only one million hectares of sago plantation to feed all Indonesians for a year. Thus, if we didn’t rely on rice for our food policy, Papua would not experience food shortages,” he explained.
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Apart from its high productivity, sago can also be cultivated on marginal land, including peatland and swamps. With such characteristics, sago could be an alternative food source in the face of climate change, which has triggered high variability in weather conditions. “However, the fact is that sago is neglected today. Many development initiatives that are being pursued today, including making new rice fields, also sacrifice sago plantations. This has occurred in Lingga, the Riau Islands, for instance,” Bintoro said.
The head of the Agriculture Ministry’s Food Security Agency, Agung Hendriadi, denied that the development of new rice fields was marginalizing the diversity of local foods. “Creating new rice fields is done in a separate area that does not disrupt the cultivation of other food sources,” he said.
Nevertheless, observations in several regions show that new rice fields are often developed by converting existing plantations, such as those for sago. This has happened in Maluku. The data of the agriculture department at Pattimura University records a 50 percent decline in the province’s sago plantations over the past 50 years. The latest survey in 2006 showed that only 40,514 hectares of sago plantations remained in Maluku. The university’s sago researcher, Marcus Luhukay, said that the decline was due to land being converted into rice farms, residential areas and government buildings.
In 2015, a 350-hectare sago plantation in Besi village of North Seram district, Central Maluku, was converted into rice fields. A sago plantation was also been converted for developing the cities of Piru in Western Seram regency and Bula in Eastern Seram regency.
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Marcus said that the government’s program that focused on nationwide rice production was not feasible for Maluku. This would only accelerate a shift in the people’s food consumption. Eventually, the local people would become dependent on rice supplied from other regions.
The impacts of the uniform food policy is also found in East Sumba regency, with the opening of a new rice farm in Pinduharani village, Tabundung district. “It is impossible to enforce rice self-sufficiency in Sumba. Only a limited area of land in Sumba is suitable for cultivating rice, due to its arid climate,” said Sumba Stimulant Institute director Stephanus Makambombu.
East Sumba’s statistics agency data shows that in 2016, locally produced rice contributed only 32.5 percent of East Sumba’s total rice consumption of 125,427 tons.
The IPB agriculture department’s crop protection head Suryo Wiyono said that Indonesia’s food problems were caused by three biases. The first was the bias for rice as a food source. The second was the bias for paddies as source of rice production. The third was the bias for fertilizers and chemical agents to support rice cultivation.
Suryo said that there were many limitations to cultivating rice and that this food commodity would not be enough to cover the nation’s food needs. “Not all regions in Indonesia are suitable for [growing] rice. Only Java, Bali and parts of Sumatra and Sulawesi have a climate and ecology suited to paddy fields. This is despite the fact that Java and Bali, the cornerstones of the nation’s rice production, have suffered massive land conversions,” Suryo said.
Kompas/Riza Fathoni
Workers carry a bag of tubers at Kramat Jati Market in East Jakarta on Saturday (26/2). Indonesia has 77 types of food that serve as sources of carbohydrates.
Nutritional needs
Drajat Martianto said that the abundant variety of local foods were generally high in carbohydrates and, in powder form, provided a carbohydrate content equivalent to rice and wheat flour. In addition, almost all of these local foods were low in protein – excepting corn flour – and gluten-free. Gluten is a protein commonly found in wheat and can cause health problems. Several of these foods, including corn, sweet potato and cassava, were also high in the antioxidant, beta-Carotene.
“I have practiced this for the past ten years. Currently, I eat rice only once a week. It is healthier. If this [consumption] pattern is applied throughout the population, this would significantly reduce the rice demand,” said Drajat.
According to him, consumption pattern was connected to the local culture. “For instance, corn used to be a staple food in East Nusa Tenggara, yet it is now identified with poor people. If people have money, they usually choose rice. This phenomenon is found everywhere, as our food policy is biased toward rice. There is a huge challenge in changing public perception and tastes that have been formed. Changes in the behavior of both consumers and policymakers is necessary,” Drajat said.
