Our food security
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.