UNDP warns of food insecurity in RI

JAKARTA (JP): The United Nations warned yesterday that the long drought and monetary crisis is threatening Indonesia's food security and that rice imports could reach record levels this year.

An 11-member team of officials from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) concluded after a three-week study in the country that delayed and irregular rainfall, reduced use of fertilizer and low quality seeds could also lead to a reduced rice harvest.

They added that 7.5 million people living in 15 provinces risked experiencing food insecurity until early 1999 if the prolonged dry season lasted much longer.

The provinces were not named but a statement from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said "these people are the bottom third of the eight million rural families who, according to Bappenas (the National Development Planning Board), live under chronic marginal circumstances", or on less than two meals a day.

The team, sponsored by UNDP Indonesia, reported their findings to donor representatives at the UN building in Central Jakarta yesterday.

"We certainly could not call this situation a famine," mission leader Uwe Kracht said. But many pockets of the population are facing acute food supply inadequacies, he added.

During their stay the team traveled throughout the country and gathered information from various sources, including the government, farmers, research institutions and non-governmental organizations.

A majority of Indonesia's 203 million people are rural dwellers, dependent on traditional agricultural production, such as rice growing.

Meteorologists blame the El Nino weather phenomenon for preventing seasonal monsoon rains from falling in many areas.

Crops have failed and tinder-dry forests have been burned, producing a thick, health-threatening smoke haze over some areas.

In addition to the drought, Indonesia is also facing its worst economic crisis in 30 years; the rupiah has plunged about 70 percent and this has caused inflation and unemployment to soar.

UNDP resident representative Ravi Rajan, who is also the UN's resident coordinator, admitted that the world body was concerned about the food security situation of the poorest in the country and hoped to help them through emergency food assistance for a limited time.

He said the WFP would target vulnerable groups with assistance in the form of food for work community development activities and nutritional support for young children, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers.

Not all was bleak however as the FAO/WFP team revealed that they found that production of most secondary crops such as soybeans, cassava, maize and sweet potatoes was expected to increase and should provide a limited food security cushion.

Food imports

Separately, World Bank Country Director for Indonesia Dennis de Tray said in Washington Tuesday that Indonesia's bill for key imports could be anything from US$1.5 billion to $3 billion over the next 12 months.

The most critical imports -- including rice, soybeans, medicine and contraceptives -- would total about $1.5 billion for the fiscal year that started yesterday. If other needed imports, such as animal feed, were included the estimates increased, he said.

De Tray was briefing reporters ahead of a meeting scheduled for Wednesday at the World Bank of a donor group -- comprising representatives of more than 20 countries, United Nations organizations and the International Monetary Fund -- to figure out initial plans for assistance.

The participants will be seeking to get a sense of the size of Indonesia's problem and what each might contribute. No one has made any pledges yet.

The donor countries include the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, Australia and Canada.

De Tray was quoted by Reuters as saying that Indonesia had a variety of needs, including pure grant funds for programs for the poor and trade finance schemes.

The immediate concern is to prepare for the coming year's needs, de Tray said.

Indonesia might need to import up to three million tons of rice over the next year, for example, and donors need to figure out how the country might buy it without sending prices shooting up or how to import it without jamming ports.

"This is a very difficult situation," he said. "To our knowledge, no country has suffered the kind of withdrawal of confidence in its own currency that Indonesia has suffered, since the Second World War."

"The recovery is not going to be easy. With the best of intentions and the best of commitment, it's going to take a while. It's going to be years, not months." (mds)