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.