Food shortages mean new diet

GUNUNGKIDUL, Yogyakarta: Failed harvests and the high price of of food has forced people in the Gunungkidul regency to consume tiwul and aking with greater frequency to supplement the scarcity of rice, Antara reported yesterday.

Gunungkidul, which is traditionally known to be a dry area, has been one of the hardest hit this year. The situation has been compounded by a long dry season and the severe economic crisis.

Tiwul is a foodstuff made of cassava while aking is dried rice leftovers.

"In the village where I live many families have been forced to eat aking because they can no longer afford to buy rice, said Martini, a resident of Semanu district.

The head of the Gunungkidul regency social affairs office, Suhardono, said his office had not received any reports of famine in the area.

"What's happening is possibly that such calamities are befalling only a few individual families," he said.

Last year, then president Soeharto initially brushed aside reports of famine in Java saying that many people on the island liked to consume tiwul, or mix it with their rice, because they believed it would give additional nourishment.