NTT residents brace for food crisis

NTT residents brace for food crisis

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

East Nusa Tenggara residents are preparing for a rice shortage, which they say will not have much of an impact since they are accustomed to eating other foods, such as corn and arbila (forest nut).

"When I was child, I ate tamarind kernels when there was a rice shortage in my neighborhood. A rice shortage is no problem for me," said Governor Piet A. Tallo on Thursday.

Tallo grew up in Tepas subdistrict, some 110 kilometers east of Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara province.

Resident Johanis Silla said he would eat corn, arbila and tubers if there was a rice shortage.

"Eating tubers and corn is no problem for adults, but local children have always eaten rice," said Silla, a resident in Baus subdistrict, South Central Timor regency.

Elis Ndun, a resident in Kupang regency in Timor Island, claimed that the food crisis would also not affect residents of nearby Rote and Sabu islands. He said that before rice became the staple food of residents of the two islands, they drank the juice of the palm fruit from the lontar tree. A few glasses of the juice quenches thirst and satisfies hunger, said Elis. "They now consume rice, but if there is a rice shortage they can easily fill up on lontar juice," said Elis.

A drought has hit the southern and eastern parts of the province that has led to food and water shortages.