Bapanas highlights hidden hunger phenomenon despite no natural disasters
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The National Food Agency (Bapanas) has highlighted the phenomenon of hidden hunger and the low energy intake that risks triggering food vulnerability status in a region despite no disasters occurring.
Food vulnerability is a condition in a region or community that has limitations in access, availability, or utilisation of nutritious food, making it highly susceptible to hunger and nutritional problems.
Sri Nuryanti, Director of Food Vulnerability Control at Bapanas, during the online Dissemination of Climate-Resilient Food Innovation event in Jakarta on Monday, explained that a region can be classified as food vulnerable if its production is inadequate and it lacks sufficient buffer stocks for the community.
“Even without experiencing disasters, if production is insufficient, there are no food reserves, many suffer from hidden hunger, high Prevalence of Undernourishment (PUU), no animal protein, and circulating food is unsafe, they are at risk of food vulnerability,” she said.
Furthermore, Sri explained that indications of nutritional vulnerability can be seen from the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PUU) figure, which reflects an individual’s inability to meet nutritional standards to live healthily, actively, and productively.
“This individual cannot meet their food needs from a minimum energy consumption of 2,100 kilocalories per capita per day, resulting in a weak, tired, lethargic life, unable to be active, let alone productive,” she stated.
In addition to quantity issues with calorie intake, Sri stressed the importance of ensuring food safety and quality to prevent deadly diseases from toxic contamination.
She highlighted several regions in Indonesia, including Papua. Bapanas recorded that 17 out of 48 regencies/cities in Papua are classified as food vulnerable and at risk of food vulnerability.
Sri called on relevant stakeholders to address this issue, including the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), to intervene in efforts to reduce food vulnerability risks based on research.
In agreement with Sri, Yudhistira Nugraha, Head of the Food Crops Research Centre at BRIN, offered two main interconnected solutions: adaptation and mitigation efforts.
Adaptation focuses on increasing productivity, resilience to climate stress, and managing water availability and stocks. Meanwhile, mitigation is anticipatory to prevent greater greenhouse gas emissions from the production sector.
“BRIN can act as a facilitator, providing science-based proven solutions related to validating greenhouse gas impact claims, for example, scientifically calculating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and this is currently being done by BRIN,” said Yudhistira Nugraha.