Record food shortages threaten Indonesia: UN

Record food shortages threaten Indonesia: UN

ROME (Reuters): Indonesia will face a record food deficit this
year as a result of lower harvests and a financial crisis that
has raised the cost of imports, two UN food agencies said on
Thursday.

In a joint report, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
and the World Food Program (WFP) said large-scale international
assistance would be needed to meet a shortfall in rice, the
country's main staple food.

"FAO-WFP urges donor countries to assist Indonesia in managing
its drought- and financial crisis-related food problems," the
report by the two Rome-based organizations said.

Steep food price increases and rapidly growing unemployment
were adding large numbers of people to those already living below
the poverty line, the report added.

"Approximately 7.5 million poor Indonesians in 15 provinces
may experience acute food shortages during the upcoming dry
season," said the report on the world's fourth-most populous
country whose economy has been shattered.

The report was based on findings of an 11-member mission from
the two agencies which visited the country from March 9 to April
1.

The two agencies estimated that the rice harvest in 1998 would
be some 47.5 million tons, 3.6 percent below last year's already
reduced production.

The shortfall was due to one of Indonesia's worst droughts
this century.

The report said the Indonesian government planned to import
about 1.5 million tons of rice between April and September but
this would still leave a deficit of two million tons.

The shortfall would have to be made up by the international
community in order to help the country, which on Thursday agreed
with the International Monetary Fund on a wide-ranging package of
measures to revive its battered economy.

The major challenge facing the country was to ensure the food
supply for some 7.5 million poor people since rice and overall
food prices have increased by about 50 percent in the last 12
months, the report said.

Uwe Kracht, head of the assessment mission, told a news
briefing production was low, stocks were low and prices were too
high.

"It is the coincidence of the food shortage, which by all
means is still relatively contained and moderate -- we are not
talking about vast famine -- with the financial situation which
does not allow the economy to function properly," Kracht said.

Thomas Lecato, a WFP emergency expert, said 440,000 people in
31 districts in eight provinces needed immediate food assistance
because of the drought. This did not include people affected by
the economic crisis and eight million rural families were living
in chronic marginal circumstances, he said.

"There is a real danger, depending on crop prospects ...that a
large number of these people could sink below this already
marginal situation where they find themselves," Lecato said.

The report said that as a consequence of the rice production
shortfall, Indonesia faced a record import requirement of about
3.5 million tons of rice over the next 12 months, ending March
31, 1999.

But it warned that renewed drought would further widen the
rice supply gap.

On a positive note, the report said maize production was
expected to increase by some 900,000 tons and soybean production
was expected to rise by some 200,000 tons.

Both were partly due to farmers shifting from rice to
secondary crops in response to delayed rains.