THE biggest portion
of the Indonesian population around 241 million in 2011 is farmers. But this
fact is not counterbalanced by the fact that food shortage is affecting 100
regencies in Indonesia or around 25 million people are facing famine.
Unproductive lands is one of the root problems as so often seen in East Nusa
Tenggara and Kalimantan
Another glaring problem is the weak purchasing power of the
locals. Food may be abundant but they are out of reach for the poor. Lack of
knowledge to process traditional food has quite often become the hurdle,
especially in the eastern part of Indonesia where the culinary methods are not
yet as sophisticated as those of Java and Bali. In East Nusa Tenggara, for
example, people in rural areas usually mixed corn and beans for protein since
they could not afford meat. But the invasion of modern culture has made them
inclined to eat more meat.
As a result, their knowledge of traditional food processing
using locally available materials is gradually fading. Muhamad Syukri, a
researcher from the Smeru Research Institute told Tempo: "Regional food
resilience is people's way of adapting to local conditions a [kind of] strategy
whereby they make use of available resources," he said. The government,
according to Syukri, is for sure incapable of fulfilling national rice supply.
Therefore, locals' efforts to organize village grain storages as in Tampumia
village, South Sulawesi must be supported.
