Rice 'out of reach' for Pauan residents in remote villages
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura
Don't ask people in Papua's remote areas how rice tastes, because for them, rice is a luxury: both expensive and rare.
"We maybe only eat rice once a month, that is, if someone gives it to us, because we can't afford to buy it," said Steven Enembe, 23, from Muhimbut village, some 750 km southwest of Papua's capital of Jayapura.
Their staple food are tubers, locally known as mbi, consisting of hipere (sweet potato) and batatas (yam). They are grown in the gardens alongside their houses, or in gardens many kilometers from their village.
Rice is rare in Mulia town because local people do not plant this crop, and if it is transported from Jayapura, its price is exorbitant due to high transportation costs.
A kilogram of rice here costs Rp 25,000 (US$2.50), whereas in Jayapura it costs Rp 4,500 per kilogram. Air freight from Sentani Airport in Jayapura to Mulia costs Rp 17,000 per kilogram.
Every day, Steven is accompanied by his wife, Endira Tabuni, 21, who is seven months pregnant, and his son, Oni, 3, to till their garden located 15 km from their home, on the other side of a hill.
Every morning, Endira prepares breakfast of mbi and plain water. They then head out to the garden, with Steven leading the way, followed by his wife and son. Endira brings a noken (bag made of woven tree bark) filled with cooked mbi for lunch.
The Steven family spends the whole day at the garden, weeding or gathering mbi and vegetables to bring home to their honai (traditional house of the Central Highland tribe) before dusk.
Once every week or so, Endira and Steven go to the market to sell their produce.
They buy sugar, salt and soap from money derived from selling hipere and batatas. "We usually get Rp 20,000 every time we go to the market," said Steven.
That's the reason why they rarely eat rice; it is simply out of their reach. "A kilogram of rice costs Rp 25,000, while they can only earn Rp 20,000 from selling crop. How can they buy rice?" Mulia district chief Rachel Elabi told The Jakarta Post.
Rachel added that even when Steven and his family did eat rice, they got it from the rice-for-the-poor scheme, in which each family is entitled to 10 liters of rice a month. But if flights are hampered due to bad weather or unpaid freight fares, residents are deprived of their monthly rice ration.
Steven's family portrays the typical life of Papuans who live in remote areas, whose daily routine involves tilling the land in a traditional way to make ends meet, without pondering their children's future.
When asked, Steven was at a loss to answer whether his son would go to school, or be like him and his ancestors who had never known education.
Puncak Jaya regency, inhabited by 132,000 people, is unique compared to other regencies in that it has permanent snow covering the top of the Cartenz Peak at an altitude of 5,040 meters above sea level. Its native residents are of the Dani-Lani tribe, the biggest tribe living in the several regencies of the mountainous Central Papua region.
"Government intervention is needed to empower people in remote areas in every aspect of life, such as agricultural assistance so as to produce better yielding crops that they can sell to improve their livelihood," said Rachel.
The government has been assisting Puncak Jaya regency since 2000 by opening rice plantations and involving local residents.
In 2004, 60 hectares of gardens produced 30 tons of unhusked rice, part of which was used to meet their daily needs and the remainder sold to cooperatives.
"We are making efforts to improve the lives of residents through rice cultivation," project manager of the Dryland Rice Cultivation program of the Puncak Jaya Agricultural Office, Ferry Laheba, told the Post.
Ferry said dryland rice would be cultivated in the lowlands, while residents living in the highlands would cultivate secondary crops.
Besides dryland rice cultivation, the local administration has developed transport and infrastructure, healthcare and education, meaning that Steven and the others will no longer have to worry about their children's education expenses.
In the education sector, the administration will provide annual assistance of Rp 6 million to every student from Puncak Jaya pursuing their studies at higher learning institutes in Indonesia. Currently, there are 1,007 students from Puncak Jaya studying at various universities across the country.
A hostel will be built for students from Puncak Jaya in five cities, including Yogyakarta, Jayapura, Manado, Nabire and Makassar.
In the infrastructure sector, there is plan to build airports in Ilaga and Ilu districts this year, as well as roads connecting Wamena in Jayawijaya regency and Mulia in Puncak Jaya regency.
In the health field, the Papua provincial administration has built a hospital in Mulia, through the Special Autonomy Fund.