President asks people to diversify their diet

President asks people to diversify their diet

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto yesterday called on the general public to diversify their diet, and not to rely only on rice which is still susceptible to pest attacks and weather conditions.

"Due to our population growth, our need for food continues to increase, while our rice production still fluctuates. We should not rely on rice alone," President Soeharto said here yesterday.

He was speaking at the annual ceremony to present awards to farmers and regional administrations for their success in the agricultural intensification program.

He pointed out that in order to reduce dependency on rice, the public should eat more of other foodstuffs.

But he also said that the country's self-sufficiency in rice, which has been achieved since 1984, should be maintained through the program to control the population growth.

"The government, therefore, has been stepping up its efforts to push population growth down," he noted at the ceremony, which was also attended by First Lady Tien Soeharto, Vice President Try Sutrisno, Mrs. Tuti Sutrisno and a number of ministers.

The food production increase will be useless if the rate of population growth is still too high, he said.

Indonesia's population, now estimated at about 192 million, grows by almost 2 percent per annum.

"We have to admit that our development success also brings in new challenges that we have to address," he said, adding that the challenges include increasingly liberalized global trade which requires countries to open their economies.

Agricultural development, he said, should be seen as part of our efforts to increase efficiency in all economic sectors with a view to benefiting from the economic liberalization.

He noted that increasing the production of food crops should also be aimed at improving the prosperity of farmers, which still account for more than half of the Indonesian population.

"The bulk of profits in the agricultural sector should go to the farmers, and the fishermen. To ensure this, we have to improve the role of village cooperative units as economic institutions in rural areas," he said.

He added that the cooperatives should become agents in the development of villages.

The President noted that the success of the agricultural development program is very much dependent on the abilities of farmers.

"Our success in developing agriculture is very much dependent on the quality of the farmers. We, therefore, should educate them to master the simple but efficient technology," he said. (13)