Food Diversification is Key
A unified movement is necessary to promote diverse local food sources with higher nutritional content. Relying on the nation’s wealth of local foods will reduce food imports.
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Workers harvest rice on Tuesday (27/2) on a farm in Jamus village of Mranggen district, Demak regency, Central Java. Rice has overtaken local foods as a staple food in Indonesia today.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – A unified movement is necessary to promote diverse local food sources with higher nutritional content. Relying on the nation’s wealth of local foods will reduce food imports.
Despite the awareness over their strategic function, local sources of staple foods have been marginalized by imported rice and wheat. A shift in public consumption patterns has been observed in Papua and Maluku. Data from the Agriculture Ministry’s Food Security Agency shows that, between 2009 and 2013, the two regions had the lowest rice consumption nationwide. Rice consumption was 50.78 percent of total food intake in Maluku and 35.61 percent of total food intake in Papua.