Our food security

Indonesia and most other countries which observed World Food Day 1996 yesterday, can feel content that the neo-Malthusian dooms-day scenario about food supply has so far failed to materialize.

Viewed globally, the war against hunger, undernourishment and malnutrition has been more a distribution problem than one of insufficient food. This, however, does not mean that universal food security has finally been achieved and all people are assured of the nutrition they need to lead a full and productive life.

In fact, the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is not exaggerating when it projects the world may suffer a food deficit of 160 million tons by the year 2010 because between 80 and 90 million new mouths have to be fed every year.

President Soeharto, who was honored by FAO in 1985 for Indonesia's success in achieving self-sufficiency in rice -- the national staple -- in 1984, thinks even farther ahead. He rightly foresees a dual challenge to future food security.

He sees the long-term sustainability of an adequate food supply as the foundation for food security. But adequate supply is not enough. The quality of nutrition is also crucial for health, which in turn is one of the most essential components for the development of human resources.

The President noted that maintaining an adequate supply of food is in itself already an uphill challenge for a country with a population of almost 200 million. As the population grows by at least by 1.5 percent a year along with per capita income increases and economic expansion, both the supply and variety of food will have to increase steadily as well. But the amount of arable land with good irrigation networks, the most suitable for rice crops, has been steadily declining because it is being converted for other uses such as housing and industrial sites and office buildings. Moreover, the rate of yield growth generated by new technology such as high-yielding strains and fertilizer seems to be diminishing.

The government has embarked on developing one million hectares of new rice fields in Central Kalimantan in a bid meet the rising demand, but the yield in this area will not be as high as that in the well-irrigated farms of Java. The sustainability of rice crops in peat and swampy land, as in Kalimantan, has not yet been proven in terms of environmental and economic viability.

The President rightly pointed to our marine resources as a potentially big supplier of protein which has not yet been tapped optimally. As the largest archipelagic state in the world, with more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia indeed possesses huge marine resources which, if developed properly, could become the nation's second largest source of food.

The challenge, though, is that our fisheries sector remains one of the least developed of our natural resources. In fact, our fishing community harbors many pockets of poverty for various reasons, including the extreme lack of well-coordinated policies and excessively arduous licensing procedures. The government often complains that the national production of sea fisheries is only around 30 percent of the sustainable catch. But the industry remains shackled by over-regulation.

The agriculture ministry, so far preoccupied with the task of maintaining rice self-sufficiency, has not allocated enough resources to the fishing industry. Besides, there seems to be too many government hands meddling in the fishing sector, while foreign fishing vessels continue to poach our sea resources. The government did move recently to deregulate the fishing industry by easing import restrictions on fishing ships but the measure is being hindered by a lack of understanding and cooperation between the related institutions.

The President's emphasis on the theme "We improve the nutrition of the people through fish consumption" for this year's Food Day will hopefully be followed by more concerted, coordinated efforts to develop marine resources.