Boosting development of less developed villages

Boosting development of less developed villages

The government is allocating a special budget, beginning this
fiscal year, to improve the livelihood of villagers in less
developed regions. The budget is expected to cover a period of
three years in the current planning.

By Sjamsoe'oed Sadjad

JAKARTA (JP): Statistics have revealed that the number of less
developed villages is large. No fewer than 20 million people
still need our commitment to help them, at least materially.
Needless to say, infrastructure in these hypo-developed villages
is less than adequate, usually very far behind the infrastructure
of developed centers. The level of education in these villages is
far below the national average, and we can expect that their
daily food intake is very low in nutritional value.

Fortunately, in these hypo-developed villages there are some
sociological potential factors that we can take advantage of in
order to accelerate the development process. First, the people in
these villages have a very high level of solidarity. Second, the
bond between husband and wife is generally very strong. Third,
the religious base is more stable and fourth, the villages are
uniform in that most homes have a yard.

Traditionally, women play key roles. They skillfully handle
all household chores, home economic activities, horticulture,
animal husbandry, and marketing of all their products.

Women have such a crucial role in determining the nutritional
quality of food for their families, especially for their
children, that a nutrition improvement campaign can only succeed
if it was positively responded to by them. In addition, teaching
proper eating habits hinges on women as well.

Village women consume tremendous amounts of time and energy
performing daily tasks because of, among others, the low level of
technology available. Working in the kitchen, cultivating the
yard and going to the market take up at least ten hours a day. If
such patterns are maintained, how can their lives be made more
efficient? Under these circumstances it would be impossible to
accelerate development in these villages. It is not possible to
turn them into industry oriented villages.

My solution is primarily a sociological approach involving
women. In my opinion, there is no village woman whose main
concern is not the health of her family. What we can do to help,
is teach them about food qualities and proper eating habits so
that they know how to better feed their family.

Women should also be encouraged to play a more active role in
home based industries, such as food, handicrafts and traditional
herbs, the raw materials of which can be obtained easily from
local sources. Their yards can be made more valuable if
agronomically cultivated, particularly if they are taught to
cultivate valuable plants such as vegetables, herbs and fibers.
Efforts based on home industries will be more likely accepted and
successful than efforts to turn them into subsistent villages.

The main problem is then the creation of a market for village
based industry. However, with a little goodwill from more
established industries and a national commitment, this problem
can be solved easily.

Another effort, that should be made, involves modification of
eating habits through education. The classification of food into
main dish and side dishes should be abandoned. Eating should be
viewed more as a balanced intake of carbohydrates, proteins, fat,
minerals and vitamins, all of which can be consumed together and
rationally--not in the form of main dish and side dishes that we
are so accustomed to.

Based on this type of menu, we can eat cassava, corn and other
sources of carbohydrates instead of rice. They can be consumed
apart from the side dishes, which is our source of protein. For
protein we can eat tofu, tempe (fermented soybean cake) and other
things. The fat component can be derived from soybean or coconut
products. Vitamins and minerals can be obtained from vegetables
that we no longer eat along with rice. All of these are consumed
apart from the carbohydrate components.

The new eating pattern should be taught to young children. The
program will have more chance of success if it is made a part of
elementary education.

Bringing the hypo-developed villages to a higher level of
prosperity will require a multidisciplinary approach. I hope such
an approach will be followed with this fiscal year's allocated
budget for the alleviation of poverty.

The writer is a professor at the Bogor Institute of
Agriculture.