Planting rice in Irian?

Planting rice in Irian?

From Republika

I have been wondering how the Indonesian Science Institute (LIPI) could have come up with the "brilliant idea" of teaching the Irian Jaya population to plant rice, as reported by one of Jakarta's newspapers. This is really disheartening. The project does not make any sense and needs to be questioned on its basis of argumentation and its scale of priority.

If the plan is a serious LIPI project, it is even more confounding. As an Indonesian, I feel really sated with the slogans stating the necessity for food diversification efforts so that we do not depend only on rice as our staple food. Why do the Irianese, whose staple food is sago palm, have to be instructed to eat rice? I fear that the cultivation of rice is to meet the need of migrant settlers or the demand of rice in Java due to its limited land area for rice growing.

If so, what is in it for the Irianese population?

The opening of new palm oil plantations in Arso district and Jayapura's east coast, respectively on 70,000 and 166,300 hectares, also leaves me aghast.

Why do sago palm forests have to be sacrificed for business tycoons (some of them foreigners to boot), if later on there will be a bizarre policy forcing the inhabitants to eat rice?

ARIEF PAMBUDI

Jakarta