Deadly starving in rice barn<\/p>\n
Tejo Pramono
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
The child malnutrition outbreak has now spread from West Nusa
\nTenggara, to West Sumatra, Lampung and now South East Sulawesi
\nProvinces. It is ironic, as these provinces have long been known
\nas rice self-sufficient areas. How is it possible that
\nmalnutrition can occur in a place like Indonesia where, as an
\nagricultural country, vast fertile land is available for
\nproducing a diverse range of foodstuffs.<\/p>\n
There must be a fundamental failure in food system policy as
\nmost malnutrition cases have occurred among farmer families;
\nthose who produce food. Yet more absurd is that the dry season
\nhas not even come yet, meaning that rice fields and farmlands
\nstill have enough water.<\/p>\n
In the words of an Indonesian proverb, this phenomenon is
\nreferred to as "the chicken dying of starvation inside a rice
\nbarn".<\/p>\n
The only policy effective in addressing this malnutrition is
\nfood security.<\/p>\n
There are various ways of defining the term food security. The
\nFAO committee on World Food Security defines it as meaning that
\n"all people at all times have both physical and economic access
\nto the basic food they need". While the World Bank defines it as,
\n"access by all people at all times to enough food for an active,
\nhealthy life". Such definitions never address where the food
\ncomes from and where it is produced.<\/p>\n
West Nusa Tenggara, for instance, where 21 children have died
\nof chronic hunger, has actually been quite successful in
\nimplementing 'green revolution' programs. Last year the province
\nwas awarded for being a rice self-sufficient province, and in
\nfact the province exported rice to other regions. But the green
\nrevolution has only benefited farmers who have enough land.
\nAgricultural workers who are landless do not have rice even
\nduring harvest seasons. They have to work hard every day to
\nincrease the productivity of rice fields, but their own income
\ndecreases even along with this increase in production.<\/p>\n
Modernization of farming under the green revolution changed
\nthe way farmers grow food, which now depends on inputs from the
\nbig agribusiness and trans-national companies. Farmers have to
\nspend more money to buy chemical pesticides and petrochemical
\nfertilizers. Even in West Nusa Tenggara, farmers have to buy
\nhybrid varieties from seed companies such as Monsanto as the
\nbiggest seed producers, even though the province has an abundance
\nof diverse local varieties.<\/p>\n
Because farmers have to pay more for inputs even while prices
\nfor their produce remains fixed, they lose money, making them
\npoorer.<\/p>\n
West Sumatra with 54,000 children suffering from malnutrition,
\nseems to be an even more insane case. Padang people are famous
\nnot only in Indonesia but also worldwide for their cuisine stalls
\nand restaurants. Their delicious dishes reflect their high
\nculture and high skill in agriculture and food matters.<\/p>\n
But because food security does not define where food comes
\nfrom, and the agribusiness approach delivered by the government
\nforcing farmers to be more market oriented, farmers produce rice
\nmore for export orientation rather than to fulfill local needs.
\nNow, people of the city Medan, Batam and also Malaysia eat the
\nflavorsome Solok and Nundam rice, but people in West Sumatra eat
\nlow-quality broken rice imported from Vietnam. And now in the
\nregency of Solok, Pesisir Selatan and Pasaman, children are
\nsuffering from malnutrition.<\/p>\n
Market orientation has also encouraged farmers in Tanggamus in
\nLampung province to grow cash crops, namely coffee, instead of
\nfood plants. The local government encourages farmers to grow cash
\ncrops because it provides a high income for the province.
\nMoreover, they invite foreign investors to open export businesses
\nand plantations in order to boost economic growth and provide
\nemployment.<\/p>\n
The cash crops and export orientation of commodities are very
\ndepending on market prices, which are very difficult to control
\nbecause of competition of a few big business that determine the
\nprice. But good prices at the international level never benefits
\nsmall producers. The price of coffee beans is very low, around
\nthree to four thousand Rupiah at the farm gate, while the middle
\nmen get Rp 9,800 and the exporters sell for Rp 10,000.<\/p>\n
Children of coffee workers in Tanggamus now suffer from
\nmalnutrition because the price of coffee has collapsed and they
\ncannot afford to buy rice, and of course they cannot eat their
\nstockpiles of coffee beans as a substitute for rice or maize.<\/p>\n
Many of the decision makers in the central government at the
\nlocal level are still market and export orientated. In many
\nseminars and discussions they refer to Thailand as the model for
\ndeveloping agriculture and agro industries. They do not know that
\nthe profits taken from exporting agricultural commodities only
\nbenefits big agribusiness companies, such as Charoen Pokphand
\nCo., and not the farmers. The peasant and small farmers in
\nThailand are now in debt and cannot repay the loans given to them
\nby big agribusiness companies.<\/p>\n
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised to revitalize
\nagriculture, fisheries and the forestry sector last Saturday
\n(11\/6), using a 'triple track' strategy and thereby decreasing
\nthe percentage of people in poverty to 8.2 percent.<\/p>\n
The government should listen to the voices of peasants and
\nfarmers and change their food policies. A concept of food
\nsovereignty has been formulated by La Via Campesina, the
\ninternational movement of peasants formed during the World Food
\nSummit in Rome in 1996.<\/p>\n
This concept is an alternative in solving the food problem
\nthat the food security concept has failed to do so. The
\nfundamental change through application of the food sovereignty
\nconcept is that communities have the right to define their own
\nagricultural and food policies, to protect and to regulate their
\nnational agricultural and livestock production, and to shield
\ntheir domestic market from dumping of agricultural surpluses and
\nlow priced imports from other countries.<\/p>\n
Food sovereignty demands prioritizing local agricultural
\nproduction in order to feed the people, as well as access for
\npeasants and landless people to land, water, seeds, and credit.
\nIt also demands land reform.<\/p>\n
The writer works for the International Operatives Secretariat
\nof La Via Campesina, an international peasant movement. He can be
\ncontacted at tpramono@viacampesina.org.<\/p>",
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