Soeharto says RI can maintain food sufficiency

Soeharto says RI can maintain food sufficiency

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto said yesterday that he was confident that Indonesia can continue to produce enough food, particularly rice, to feed its growing population, at least in the foreseeable future.

Soeharto, however, warned that the people should also make a strong effort to diversify their diet away from rice, noting that Indonesians rank among the biggest rice eaters in the world with an annual per capita consumption of 136 kilogram.

The head of state yesterday was engaged in another face to face meeting with ordinary folk to discuss various problems confronting the nation. Yesterday, he met with residents of a new low-cost apartment block shortly after he inaugurated it.

Soeharto said that one of the biggest achievements Indonesia made in its national development program was when it became self- sufficient in rice in 1984, something which the country has managed to maintain to this day with the population nearing 200 million.

But can Indonesia retain this performance in the coming years?

"Yes," Soeharto responded to his own question.

He said Indonesia's rice production can still be increased to cope with ever-growing demand, through both expanding the areas planted with the crop and intensification methods that increase yields.

Among programs already underway is the conversion of about one million hectares of peat land for farming and the development of a high-yielding rice strain that can grow on coarse grass land.

The government is also considering to use areas cleared for forestry estates to plant food crops when the new trees are still young, he said.

Indonesia's rice production since 1984 has only barely kept pace with growing demand, with the several shipments of rice imports since then made chiefly used to meet with temporary shortages and replenish stock.

This year, the Central Bureau of Statistics projected Indonesia's unhusked rice production at 48.5 million tons, representing a 3.89 percent increase over 1994 production.

Before becoming self-sufficient in rice in 1984, Indonesia had been the largest buyer of the crop in the world market, leaving it at the mercy of ruthless rice speculators who pushed prices high each time the country was about to make a purchase.

Soeharto yesterday warned that there might come a time when Indonesia could no longer expand the area planted with rice or that rice intensification program reaches its saturation point.

"This is the reason why we have to diversify our diet," he said, pointing out that no other country in the world has as high rice per capita consumption as Indonesia.

"We will have to learn to control what we eat. Not like today, we eat rice first to fill us up, and eat the 'lauk pauk' (accompaniment to rice) later," he said.

People in other countries only eat one bowl of rice at a time because they also consume vegetable, meat, fish and others, he said.

"If we could change our eating habits, and eat only a third of the 136 kilogram that we each consume a year, that means that we will be able to feed three times the size of our population today," Soeharto said. (emb)