Soeharto to address UN summit on food

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto plans to discuss Indonesia's strategy to maintain and improve its food security at next week's World Food Summit at the headquarters of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy.

Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said yesterday the President would discuss food self-sufficiency for domestic consumption and commodities exports.

He said Indonesia would demonstrate its agricultural importance in the Rome Declaration for World Food Security, a draft of which stipulates that countries must have access to safe, affordable, appropriate and nutritious food.

Indonesia will make submissions to the summit on an action plan to monitor nationwide and household food security to support agricultural development in rural areas, he added.

The summit will run from Nov. 13 to Nov. 17.

The secretary-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, Soetatwo Hadiwigeno, said Wednesday the organization gave Soeharto, a member of the International Board of Patrons for the World Food Summit, a special tribute in 1985 to reward him for leading Indonesia to rice self-sufficiency.

The President will explain to 173 heads of state how the country became rice self-sufficient in 1984, after decades of dependence on rice imports, he said.

He said members of the House of Representative's Commission IV for agriculture and two young Indonesian essay-contest winners would attend events in Rome coinciding with the summit.

Soetatwo said Indonesia would be the only country at the summit allowed to have a stand displaying its books on agricultural development.

The books are on Indonesia's technical assistance programs to African farmers, financial assistance and training for farmers in 12 of Indonesia's 27 provinces, the Presidential Instruction Program for Least Developed Villages and efficient irrigation and fertilizer usage.

The summit aims to encourage developing countries' governments to work for food security in cooperation with the private sector since World Bank aid is dwindling, Soetatwo said.

The FAO states that 88 countries are low-income food deficit countries: 44 are in Africa, 23 are in Asia, nine are in Latin America and the Caribbean and 12 are in Europe. (02)