People turn to 'alternative' food items for survival

People turn to 'alternative' food items for survival

By Lorensius Molan

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (Antara): As food shortages take a
grip on the eastern provinces, people have taken to eating
"alternative" food to survive.

For adults in rural areas in Kupang district, putak is a
foodstuff usually eaten only when stocks of rice, corn, tubers
and other crops are running low.

Putak is the dried or boiled flesh of the stem of a kind of
sugar palm called gewang (Corifa gebana).

"We, adults, can eat boiled putak. But this is not suitable
for children because after having it they usually get diarrhea,"
Agustina Panael, 23, a housewife in Poto village, said.

She usually feeds her children on corn or tubers when rice
becomes scarce.

Panael, a mother of five, admitted that she and her children
first ate putak last December.

"We have decided to eat putak because of the unavailability of
rice," she told Kupang district head, Paul Lawa Rihi.

Rihi recently visited Poto and the neighboring village of
Neutaus in Fatuleu subdistrict, as he heard they were among
settlements reportedly threatened with starvation.

Poto village, home to 648 families (2,892 people), is located
100 km east of Kupang and several mountainous areas and a number
of large rivers make it even more remote.

"This year our harvest failed completely because of a long dry
season. That's why we have to eat putak," said Johannes
Bartholomeus Hai, 36, a villager in Poto.

He added: "However, this does not mean that we are suffering
from starvation."

Poto village head, Matius Nifu Eki, admitted that 119 families
in the village had eaten putak as their main staple since last
December because of crop failure.

"The drought this year is worse than in previous years. For a
lack of corn and rice, we have no other choice but eat putak," he
said.

Eating putak is also common in Neutaus, home to 726 families
(3,415 people), even though village head Yeremia Nenobahan said
that the residents had not yet had to resort to eating it every
day.

To serve it as a meal, putak is often processed into flour in
the same way as sago, the staple food for the indigenous people
of Maluku. However, as the processing technique is generally
alien to rural people in Kupang district, they tend to boil it.

"We used to have a special machine to process putak into
flour. Unfortunately, when our district was inundated last year,
the machine was carried away by the flood," said Rihi.

The local government launched the Love the People drive in
Kupang and managed to collect some 30 tons of rice from the
Kupang community. The rice was sent to the areas suffering the
most severe food shortages. Each village received one ton of
rice.

Labor-intensive projects such as roadmaking and market
operations were also launched to relieve the suffering.

Maria Nenobahan, a housewife in Neutaus, said the rice
supplied by the logistics depot was sold at Rp 1,500 (17.5 U.S.
cents) per kilogram. Many villagers had to sell their cattle and
fowl before buying the rice, she said.

Rihi acknowledged that the rice was not being given away.

"The villagers will not get the rice for free. They will have
to join the labor-intensive projects. They must be empowered so
that they won't just give up easily when life becomes difficult,"
he said.

He believed that the purchasing power of Neutaus villagers was
still relatively strong. Therefore, aid given to them would only
be in the form of market operations and labor-intensive projects.

"Their purchasing power is still good. Although this year has
seen a harvest failure, local people can still sell their
cattle," Lawa Rihi said after visiting the village.

It is also reported that residents of Bokong village in
Central Kupang subdistrict are also threatened with starvation.
However, as the village is difficult to reach, the Kupang
district head has not had an opportunity to take a close look at
the situation there.