UNDP warns of food insecurity in RI

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)