Govt to build food barns in famine prone areas
Govt to build food barns in famine prone areas
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Wamena
Learning from the famine calamity in Yahukimo regency, Papua
province, the central government will soon build food barns in
several locations prone to famine, a local government official
said on Tuesday.
The central government would also deploy researchers and
agricultural experts in order to study whether soil in the
regency was fit for crops other than sweet potato, which is the
staple food of the Yahukimo people, said Yahukimo deputy regent
Daniel Rendeng. The steps were being taken in order to prevent
famine from happening again, said the official in Wamena, the
closest city to Yahukimo regency.
According to the plan drawn up by the central government, food
stores including rice and sweet potato would be stored in the
barns to anticipate harvest failure. The food diversification
program was also important so that people were not dependent
solely on sweet potato.
The famine hit the area after a sweet potato harvest failure
this year. At least 55 people have reportedly died of starvation
while 112 have become critically ill. The case attracted national
attention after Yahukimo regent Ones Pahebol last week alerted
the national media to the plight of his people. Upon seeing the
story in the media, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono instructed
government officials to dispatch food aid and medicine to the
famine stricken areas, but the relief efforts had been hampered
by bad weather, and until Monday only a small portion of the aid
had reached the regency.
An Army helicopter dropped aid on Tuesday in four location hit
by famine, with each spot receiving 450 kilograms of food.
Sister Sue Triner, a church missionary who has been living for
years in Papua and recently visited Yahukimo, said the food aid
helped save the lives of residents in the famine-affected area.
If the food aid had not been dropped into the area, the
starvation would have been much more severe and would have cost
more lives, she said.
Yahukimo regency is some 800 kilometers from Jayapura, the
capital of Papua province, and can only be reached by air. The
region is mostly mountainous and has a wet tropical climate. It
extends across some 98,693 square kilometers and is inhabited by
55,000 people, according to the most recent census.
Separately, as food aid began flowing into Yahukimo regency,
the South Sulawesi provincial government promised on Monday night
that it would send five tons of rice into the famine affected
area.
A Papua opposition leader earlier blamed the government for
the famine, saying the disaster was a result of the government's
ignorance about its people. Huge amounts of money under the
special autonomy program had been channeled to local governments
but a major part of it had gone into the coffers of officials and
not to the people, said Fadel Al Hamid, the secretary of the
Papuan Custom Council (DAP).
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Wamena
Learning from the famine calamity in Yahukimo regency, Papua
province, the central government will soon build food barns in
several locations prone to famine, a local government official
said on Tuesday.
The central government would also deploy researchers and
agricultural experts in order to study whether soil in the
regency was fit for crops other than sweet potato, which is the
staple food of the Yahukimo people, said Yahukimo deputy regent
Daniel Rendeng. The steps were being taken in order to prevent
famine from happening again, said the official in Wamena, the
closest city to Yahukimo regency.
According to the plan drawn up by the central government, food
stores including rice and sweet potato would be stored in the
barns to anticipate harvest failure. The food diversification
program was also important so that people were not dependent
solely on sweet potato.
The famine hit the area after a sweet potato harvest failure
this year. At least 55 people have reportedly died of starvation
while 112 have become critically ill. The case attracted national
attention after Yahukimo regent Ones Pahebol last week alerted
the national media to the plight of his people. Upon seeing the
story in the media, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono instructed
government officials to dispatch food aid and medicine to the
famine stricken areas, but the relief efforts had been hampered
by bad weather, and until Monday only a small portion of the aid
had reached the regency.
An Army helicopter dropped aid on Tuesday in four location hit
by famine, with each spot receiving 450 kilograms of food.
Sister Sue Triner, a church missionary who has been living for
years in Papua and recently visited Yahukimo, said the food aid
helped save the lives of residents in the famine-affected area.
If the food aid had not been dropped into the area, the
starvation would have been much more severe and would have cost
more lives, she said.
Yahukimo regency is some 800 kilometers from Jayapura, the
capital of Papua province, and can only be reached by air. The
region is mostly mountainous and has a wet tropical climate. It
extends across some 98,693 square kilometers and is inhabited by
55,000 people, according to the most recent census.
Separately, as food aid began flowing into Yahukimo regency,
the South Sulawesi provincial government promised on Monday night
that it would send five tons of rice into the famine affected
area.
A Papua opposition leader earlier blamed the government for
the famine, saying the disaster was a result of the government's
ignorance about its people. Huge amounts of money under the
special autonomy program had been channeled to local governments
but a major part of it had gone into the coffers of officials and
not to the people, said Fadel Al Hamid, the secretary of the
Papuan Custom Council (DAP).