RICE AS STAPLE REPLACEABLE?

by Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Oct 23 (ANTARA) - Rice has since time immemorial become one of the staples, yet of late, when they increasingly become rice-minded, the people are encouraged to consume non-rice crop-based foods as their staples to help increase the country's food resilience.          "We are conducting studies whether local foods can replace rice as staples. We hope these studies would have been completed this very year," Head of Food Resilience Affairs of the Ministry of Agriculture Achmad Suryana said recently.          There are many kinds of local foods derived from secondary crops such as tubers and maize but so far, rice for many people  have been their staple.  Rice has become a staple for all classes in Indonesia.          To promote non-rice consumption, an expert staff of the minister for economic affairs said that the Indonesian people do not need to eat rice as their daily staple as they can also consume other crops like tubers and maize.          "It is wrong to have the perception that we have to eat rice if we want to stay healthy," Arifin Habibie, an expert staff of the chief economic minister said in a workshop on agricultural technology innovation held to observe the 31st World Food Day here on Saturday.          He said that the government should encourage all regions to choose their own staples and promote them as part of the efforts to increase national food resilience.          "If the people of Gorontalo take maize as their staple or of Maluku make their choice on sago for their main daily diet, just let them do it because it is their rights to decide which food they will eat for their staples," Arifin said.          He said that the fertility of the Indonesian land enabled the people to plant whatever crops they want apart from rice, for example, cassava, sweat potato, maize and sago.          If the people make their choice to consume carbohydrate sources apart from rice it means that the food diversification in Indonesia is successful, he said.          The Indonesian government has made different efforts to guarantee food stocks in the future. Among the efforts is a program to diversify the country's food.          Food diversification is considered one of the ways to overcome food crisis in a number of regions in Indonesia.          Farmers who are not able to plant rice during a dry spell could plant secondary crops in order to increase their food stocks. Data at the trade ministry and the Central Board of Statistics (BPS) show that the acreage of crops plantations has undergone a significant increase.          The increase in the acreage of secondary crop plantations also boost production. Maize production increased 3.96 percent from 17,630  tons in 2009 to 18,328 tons in 2010.          The same thing also happened to cassava plantations whose production experienced a growth of 8.53 percent to 1,879 tons in the same period. With the fact on the increase in non-rice production, the Indonesian people are able to overcome food crisis.          However, the people's awareness of consuming non rice food stuff is still low as reflected by the BPS data.          Based on the BPS data, the people's non maize consumption in the 1996 - 1999 period dropped from 3.8 kg per capita per annum to 3.7 kg per capita per annum.          The rate of potato consumption of the people also declined from 1.8 kg per capita per annum in 1996 to 0.9 kg per capita per annum.          This shows a fact that the habit of the people to eat food other than rice was still low, after all, this happened at a time when the national secondary crops production increased in the 2010 - 2011, such as maize which rose 7.24 percent to 17,592 tons.          In spite of that, campaigns to consume non rice commodities continue to take place as they will help the country  increase its food resilience where all regions will no longer depend too much on rice.          "We have to change the people's mind that only poor people consume cassava or maize. We have to launch campaigns that non rice food also has high benefit and nutrition contents," he said.          The problem is that can people change their habit of eating rice, even they have alternative local foods? That is the reason why the government is now carrying out studies to assure whether or not rice could be replaced with local foods.           Achmad Suryana showed his optimism. He hoped that the study on the possibility of changing rice with other local foods would be completed this very year and be reported to the office of the chief economic minister and the minister for people's welfare.          "We hope that, if approved, this program would have been launched next year," Achmad said.          In order to implement the plan, the government will incorporate it with its 'raskin' program, namely a scheme where the government distributes cheap rice for poor families in the country.          The on-going government's rice for the poor (raskin) program may next year include allocation of local foods instead of merely rice.          In line with its raskin program, the government is studying the utilization of non-rice food stuff, or local foods to be included in the raskin program.          It is expected to include cassava, maize, sago and tubers that have become the staples of the local people.***5*** (T.A014/A/S012) 23-10-2011 13:44