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.