Sumba people face food shortages

Sumba people face food shortages

MAUMERE, East Nusa Tenggara: With supplies of staple food
running short in the past two months, people in East Sumba
regency could suffer from hunger early next year, a local
legislator said on Thursday.

Deputy speaker of the regency legislature Josef Supusepa
warned of the starvation after visiting Kayuri and Umalulu
villages, where he said people had complained about the lack of
rice and corn.

"People start to eat crops to be sewn in the upcoming planting
season which begins in mid-November. They will have nothing to
eat and plant in the next two months," he said.

Other legislators, Yohanes Paulus and Robertus Gah, predicted
that the remaining staple food reserves would not be enough to
feed people across the regency.

"A lot of them have already been consumed because of the poor
harvest last year," Paulus said.

He said the legislators had called on the local administration
to address the matter seriously a long time. "But no concrete
measures have been taken so far." (yac)