Poor quality rice sold to the poor

Poor quality rice sold to the poor

By Emanuelle Anastashya

JAKARTA (JP): To some people, quality matters. Even when you
are in a condition that does not allow you to be selective.

Suparlan, a pedicab driver with three children, is not
interested in the "cheap rice" sold in the market operation in
his neighborhood in Manggarai, South Jakarta.

"Although I have no means to be arrogant, I still don't buy
the rice," he told The Jakarta Post.

"The quality of the rice is bad. It almost doesn't taste like
rice and it also smells odd," said Suparlan, who shares a four-
square-meter room with his family.

He was referring to the rice offered in a program, which was
launched in April 1999 by the World Food Program (WFP) in
collaboration with a number of local non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), called Operasi Pasar Swadaya Masyarakat
(OPSM, a non-governmental market operation). Under the program,
disadvantaged families can buy rice at Rp 1,000 per kilogram, 50
percent cheaper than the market price.

However, each household is only allowed to purchase five
kilograms a week.

The government has also launched nationwide a similar program
called the Special Market Operation (OPK) since July last year.

Suparlan said he once tasted the rice bought by his neighbor
in the market operation, and he did not like it.

"That's why every week when they come here to sell the rice, I
just stand around and watch the crowd," Suparlan said.

Another resident, Yusup, 41, who sells coconut at a nearby
market, also grumbled about the quality of the rice, but bought
it anyway.

"The rice is bad, but that's OK. We can use the money saved to
purchase our other needs," he said.

"We usually mix it with the rice that we buy at Rp 2,000 per
kg. It's more palatable that way," his wife Dedah, 28, added.

In the distribution of the cheap rice, WFP is assisted by 15
local NGOs, such as the Youth Ending Hunger Indonesia (YEH),
Zaitun and Kekal.

According to WFP, there are 1,250 distribution points, and all
are located in the slum areas of Jakarta.

Once a week, representatives from the local NGOs will visit
the distribution points and sell the rice to the communities.

"They come here once a week," said Karsinah, a resident of
Janis village in North Jakarta.

Karsinah's makeshift food stall at the side of a railroad has
been used as a distribution point for the past six months.

Asiah, a mother of four, is grateful for the program, yet she
hopes to get better quality rice.

"I'm happy with the program, but it would be nicer if we could
have better quality rice," she said.

According to WFP, those entitled to buy the rice are people
who are too poor to consume even 300 grams of rice per day or
protein-rich food at least once a week, pay the school fees for
their children's primary school education or afford medical
treatment at public health centers.

These conditions are printed at the back of the food card
distributed by WFP to the families.

Families must produce the card when purchasing the rice.

"The card is to ensure that each family only purchases five
kilograms of rice as ruled," Alamsyah, the chief of community
unit four in Manggarai, South Jakarta, told the Post.

Community unit four is the area in Manggarai with the most
number of urban poor residents, Alamsyah said.

"People here are grateful for the program. We can save some
money for other purposes," he said.

Each week, YEH sells as much as 20 sacks of rice in the area.

"From the 850 families, there are about 400 families assisted
each week," Alamsyah said.

WFP acknowledges that the major constraint of the OPSM is the
limited experience of the local NGOs and "in some occasions" the
relatively low quality of the in-kind rice donations.

Aside from the in-kind rice donations provided by countries
such as the United States, Japan, Australia, Germany and the
Netherlands, WFP also receives cash contributions.

"When we receive cash contributions, we purchase and ship the
rice from Thailand or Vietnam," Inge Breuer, WFP's program
advisor told the Post.

"We tried twice to purchase the rice from Indonesia, but the
supplier failed to deliver them on time," she said.

Meanwhile, Wardah Hafidz, coordinator of the Urban Poor
Consortium (UPC), says the discounted rice must come from
Indonesian rice farmers as the current method used by WFP will
disrupt the local rice market.

"Of course the urban poor are grateful for the discounted
rice, but in the long term our rice farmers will be disadvantaged
if WFP continues to purchase and sell rice in a large scale from
abroad," she said.

"Unless WFP purchases the discounted rice from local farmers,
it is better it stops the program," she added.