31 Million of Indonesia's Population Still Poor and Hungry
| Print |
LOMBOK TENGAH, 21 OCTOBER, 2010: Some 31 million people in Indonesia are still poor and hungry, and living below the poverty line, Chief Minister Agung Laksono quoted by Antara news agency as saying.
"Addressing poverty and hunger is a complex, and often political, challenge. No single approach will provide the solution to this challenge, but several areas in which effective action can be taken can be identified," he said when officiating the World Food Day commemoration in Lombok Tengah, West Nusa Tenggara province on Wednesday.
The event marks the 30th anniversary of the World Food Day.
He added that no Indonesian wants to be hungry, and therefore 236 million citizen must unite to help the government fight hunger," he said.
Urging more proactive roles, he urged provincial and district governments to play an important role in encouraging local communities to develop agriculture and maintain the food potentials including forest preservation.
"Food self-sufficiency is more important than food resilience. So, the government had to optimize the domestic food sector as well as local resources.
"When we neglect our local food, we are actually reducing our national food supply," he explained.
He said the government is currently taking efforts by introducing self-reliance programme, which could be maintained through increasing production and productivity of farmers and fishermen.
"The government will continue to play an active role in helping maintain food resilience in developing countries such as Myanmar, Timor Leste, Madagascar and several other European countries," he added.
While, West Nusa Tenggara governor Zainul Majdi said that rice consumption among people in Indonesia is very high, thus reducing other local food consumption rate.
"It will be our common concern to make people less dependent on rice," he said, citing that West Nusa Tenggara province is the second after Bali that is still very dependent on rice.
There are more than 1.02 hungry people in the world, says Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
- Bernama
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.
