Jakarta, Nov 24 (Antara) - Despite 70 percent of Indonesia's 5.2
million-square-kilometer area being covered by water and having abundant
fish stocks, yet it is unable to fully and sustainably exploit its sea
wealth and has low fish consumption.
Thus, the government is
encouraging the people to eat more fish, which is rich in protein and
nutrition and is considered to help in brain development.
"Therefore, we have the slogan: 'Eat Fish for Building Intelligence,
Health, and Strength.' The growth of brain cells is supported by
protein, which comes from different sources such as fish. Fish contains
Omega3 for brain growth," Director General for Processing and Marketing
of Fisheries Products of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries
(KKP) Saut Hutagalung stated in Jambi Province over the weekend.
Saut, who was attending the "Foreikan Jamboree" held in Jambi to
observe the National Fish Day, said that human brain cells need high
supply of protein, particularly newly born infants. The development of
brain cells can be boosted by consuming fish.
Unfortunately, Indonesian people still consume less fish. The per
capita fish consumption of Indonesian people per year is still about 38
kilograms, which is much smaller as compared to the average fish
consumption of the Japanese, which reaches 50 kilograms.
Indonesia's per capita fish consumption has, in fact, increased as
compared to 29.08 kilograms in 2009 and 30.47 kilograms per annum
recorded in 2010.
The director general affirmed that about 65 percent of our protein
needs could be supplied by fish. Meeting nutritional needs is a serious
problem, which is apparent by the fact that the average height of the
people in the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is 174 centimeters while
that in Indonesia is only about 158 centimeters.
The
average IQ level of the ASEAN people is 93 while that of Indonesia is
only 89. Saut remarked that this problem must be overcome, and the
situation should be improved by increasing fish consumption.
"We
have concerns to increase fish consumption among people. Fish has more
advantages as compared to other types of meat," Saut noted.
No form of disease has been found in fish meat that could endanger the
health of the consumers. Other types of meat may contain diseases.
"In beef, we know what is called as mad cow disease, and we also find
bird flu in fowls. But, in fish, except for fat, we do not find any
dangerous diseases. The fat content in fish does not pose a significant
problem. Fish is classified in the white group of meat, which has a
positive impact on health," the KKP official explained.
Therefore, the director general called on the people to promote and eat
more fish. The people should increase fish production both through
cultured and fish-catching endeavors.
"Yet, the people should
continue to maintain the environment," Saut affirmed during the
commemoration of the Fish Day in Jambi on Saturday.
Jambi province is known to be one of the country's fish production
centers, particularly cultured "patin" catfish (Pangasius).
While attending the jamboree held in observance of the National Fish
Day, Saut symbolically handed over a unit of fishery technology transfer
car and a fishery marketing car to Jambi Governor Hasan Basri Agus
(HBA).
Governor HBA emphasized that Jambi has huge fishery potential and
should continue to be developed. Jambi has been known to be one of the
country's cultured patin fish production centers.
The governor revealed that in order to boost patin fish production in
Jambi, this province is developing a fish food or a fillet processing
industry. Besides that, the central government is committed to
establishing a fish powder factory.
"Jambi is developing its fisheries sector to trigger its economic growth," the governor noted.
The
fish farmers in Jambi have voiced their concerns regarding the
difficulties encountered so far in marketing their fish products due to
the high cost of fish foods, but the presence of the fillet processing
industry in Kasang Pudak Village, Morajambi, will help them.
So far, pond and floating fish cage farmers have to bear the high fish
food prices and unstable patin prices in the domestic market.
Establishing a patin fish processing unit in the village is viewed to be
a helpful step. The fish farmers in Muarojambi District are able to
produce 25 tons of "patin" catfish per day, Muarojambi District Head
Burhanuddin Mahir recently stated.
The data made available by the DKP local office indicated that the
production of Jambi's cultured patin catfish reached 24,827.4 tons in
2012 with 17,448 families involved in fish farming activities.
On
the national scale, the KKP is developing pilot projects on "patin"
catfish fillet processing industries in several locations across the
country such as in Muarojambi, Kampar District in Riau province,
Karawang and Purwakarta districts in West Java, Banjar district in South
Kalimantan, and Tulungagung in East Java with funds derived from the
state budget.
The pilot projects are expected to encourage all stakeholders to increase national patin catfish production.
Indonesia's patin catfish production in 2006 was recorded at 31
thousand tons, while it had increased to 651 thousand tons in 2012.
With the development of Patin cultivation centers and fillet processing
industries, the Ministry of Maritime and Fisheries Affairs is targeting
a production of over one million tons of patin fish this year.
Regarding the overall fisheries production this year, the KKP has set a
target at 22.39 million tons, about 19.5 percent of the global fish
production of 114.6 million tons.
With regard to cultured fish, Indonesia has not yet fully exploited its
land potential. So far, only about two to three percent of its land
potential for cultured fish has been developed.
"Indonesia has land potential covering 12.5 million hectares. Now, only
about two to three percent has been utilized," Agus Suherman, the
president director of the state-owned fisheries company Perindo,
claimed.
***2***
(T.A014/INE)
EDITED BY INE
(H-YH)
(T.A014/A/BESSR/A/Yosep) 24-11-2014 16: |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar