Rice stock dwindles, thousands of poor people facing hunger

Rice stock dwindles, thousands of poor people facing hunger

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Thousands of poor people in the Central Sulawesi regencies of
Banggai and the neighboring Banggai Islands are at risk of going
hungry as the local administration is falling short of cheap
rice.

The poor are among the millions of people listed as buyers of
government-subsidized rice under the cheap rice program, which
was initiated to address the impact of the prolonged economic
crisis. The distribution of cheap rice in the two regencies is
conducted by the depot of logistics in the town of Luwuk, over
100 kilometers away from Banggai.

Head of the depot Nicolas Mawuntu told Antara on Friday his
office had only 920 tons of rice left in stock.

"Our stock won't be enough to supply such a large number of
people. It will last only a week," Nicolas said.

The supply may be depleted even faster now that demand is
increasing in relation to the Idul Fitri holiday, which falls on
Friday and Saturday next week.

Nicolas said the stock was part of the 3,000 tons of rice
recently imported by the provincial depot of logistics in
Vietnam.

Without revealing any details, he said the central government
contributed a little to the supply of cheap rice. The Luwuk depot
of logistics has brought in rice from other regencies to maintain
its stock since last July, he added.

Luwuk is dubbed the second largest rice supplier in Central
Sulawesi, but prolonged drought has caused harvest failure
throughout thousands of hectares of usually productive paddy
fields.

"We cannot buy unhusked rice from farmers whose fields
survived the drought, because we offer a price of only Rp 1,500
per kilogram as set by the government, which is far below the
market price," Nicolas said.

Pests, which were rampant in some districts, are also being
blamed for the harvest failure this year.

Nicolas said that in anticipation of the growing demand for
rice during Idul Fitri, the provincial administration had
promised to bring 1,500 tons of imported rice for distribution to
Banggai and the Banggai Islands before the Islamic holiday.

Nicolas regretted the slow response from both the provincial
and central governments to the impending threat of hunger. He
said he had urged related institutions in Palu and Jakarta to
initiate a relief program and speed up the shipping of rice.