Minister: Free Nutritious Meals, Village Cooperatives Spur Thematic Villages, Improve Nutrition Access

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Minister of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions (Mendes PDT), Yandri Susanto, said the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme and the Merah Putih Village/Kelurahan Cooperatives (KDKMP) are encouraging the emergence of various thematic villages, such as melon villages and egg-laying chicken villages. Yandri stated in Jakarta on Tuesday that these two priority programmes have made it easier for rural communities to access nutritious food, such as eggs and chicken meat. “Since MBG was introduced, alhamdulillah, they have felt the benefits, including the birth of new economic growth centres. This also includes the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives,” he said. According to him, KDKMP can serve as a locomotive for driving the economy, a means of economic equalisation, and a new source of income for villages. Yandri explained that 20 per cent of the cooperative’s surplus will become the village’s original income, while 80 per cent will be returned to the village community. “This will also reduce unemployment in villages, because the workforce for the cooperative will be sourced from the local village,” he said. He met with 10 village associations to discuss both programmes. He said all the village associations present expressed their readiness to oversee the MBG and KDKMP programmes. Meanwhile, PAPDESI Chairperson Wargiyati, representing the 10 associations, firmly stated their support for the MBG and KDKMP programmes. She assessed that MBG greatly assists village residents and has absorbed village labour as volunteers. “MBG has also become the main driver for the formation of thematic villages, such as melon villages, rice villages, tomato villages, broiler chicken villages, and egg-laying chicken villages, among others, to prepare the raw material supply chain which has a multiplier effect and increases village economic turnover,” Wargiyati said. According to her, MBG can address the food needs of vulnerable village communities and school children who require adequate nutritional intake for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, the elderly, toddlers, elementary, junior high, and high school students, including residents in disadvantaged, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions. “We, the Village Associations, fully support the Merah Putih Village/Kelurahan Cooperatives (KDKMP) programme as a locomotive for driving the village economy, opening job opportunities, increasing family income, and eradicating poverty,” she said. She noted that the development of KDKMP has and will provide affordable basic goods for village communities, expand employment for village residents, and improve the economic access of village communities. Given the strategic importance of MBG and KDKMP, the associations requested that the government continue to make improvements and refine governance so that both national priority programmes become more effective, efficient, and well-targeted for village residents.