Law No. 18/2012 on food explicitly mandates that the central and local governments are responsible for the availability and development of local food production.
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Kompas/Riza Fathoni
A waiter prepares a dish on Saturday (24/2) to serve to guests at the Nusa Indonesian Gastronomy in Kemang, South Jakarta. The restaurant’s chef is innovating fine dining by creating dishes using locally sourced foods and spices.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Law No. 18/2012 on food explicitly mandates that the central and local governments are responsible for the availability and development of local food production. Ignoring the diversity of local food varieties is a form of disavowing the Constitution.
The Food Law also calls for the need to achieve food self-sufficiency, which is defined as the ability of the government produce diverse foods from within the country in order to guarantee the fulfillment of the people’s food needs.
This can be achieved through realizing the potential of local natural resources, local people, local socioeconomic conditions and local customs.
"After the implementation of the Food Law, the diversification of locally sourced foods becomes the automatic responsibility of the central and regional governments," the coordinator for the National Alliance of Prosperous Villages, Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko, said on Wednesday (28/2) in Jakarta.
A number of regions have issued regulations to follow the Food Law. The Sumbawa regency administration, for example, issued Regulation No. 2/2014 on the diversification of local food consumption. The Banyuwangi regency administration issued Regulation No. 35/2015 with the same objective.
Several other areas, according to Tejo, had also implemented regulations on local food diversification. For example, in East Sumba regency, East Nusa Tenggara, the local government issued Regulation No. 130/2009 on Food Diversification, followed by Circular No. 521/627/1X/2012 on its One Day Without Rice campaign.
"However, these laws and regulations are not fully implemented, just a slogan," he said. Tejo said the government of President Joko Widodo had actually established food sovereignty as one of the priority programs in the Nawacita concept. In 2014, the President issued a target to achieve self-sufficiency of strategic food commodities, such as rice, corn and soybean, within three years.
Besides failing to achieve the target, the policy prioritizing these three commodities marginalized local food diversity. "Most bureaucrats ignore the importance of local foods," Tejo said.
Clearing sago palms
It is not only the bureaucrats, but academia also neglects local food sources. This has been seen, for example, in the recent clearing of more than 100 sago palms on the Pattimura University (Unpatti) campus in Ambon.
Based on Kompas’ observations, the sago palms near the university’s law school building were cut down to make way for the construction of a new building. This sago germplasm pilot garden was under the management of the agriculture department.
Saswaty Matakena, an alumna of the university’s agriculture department, said the university should encourage the cultivation of local foods. The sago plantation near the campus had become a local food icon, as well as a living laboratory. Furthermore, the university had initiated the issuance of local Regulation No. 10/2011 on sago management and conservation.
Kompas attempted to meet with the dean of the agriculture department, John Matinahoru. However, according to the security guard, he was not in his office, even though his car was parked out front. When contacted by phone, John replied that the phone signal was bad. He requested that he be contacted by text messaging, but did not respond to the questions sent via text message.
The manager of the sago plantation, Marcus Luhuka, who is also a lecturer at the agriculture department, declined to comment on the clearing of the sago palms.
However, he said that six varieties of sago palms were grown in the sago plantation, all indigenous to Maluku, the molat putih, molat merah, tuni, ihur, duri rotang and eataru sago palms. The sago plantation was opened in 1994, but it was burned in 1999 during the sectarian conflict in Ambon. It was reestablished 12 years later.
Regional initiatives
In contrast to other regions, the regency of Sangihe Island, North Sulawesi, is holding a campaign to promote local foods. Sangihe Islands Regent Jabes Ezar Gaghana said he had introduced a campaign called “Two Days Without Rice” on Tuesdays and Fridays.
"People spend around Rp 750 million every day to buy rice. Cutting rice two days a week can save Rp 1.5 billion. That amounts to Rp 6 billion a month. This fund can be used to buy foods produced locally from tubers, sago and banana," he said.
"The food the people of Sangihe ate, during the era of our ancestors, was local foods. Rice was unknown in Sangihe at that time. We just knew sago and tubers. That’s why I try to promote local foods, because a lot of local foods are not fully utilized."
Puji Sumedi, the manager of the agro ecosystem program of the Kehati Foundation, said, "We will continue to monitor it until it becomes a local food regulation. "
Meanwhile, the Papua provincial government is currently promoting the local consumption of sago. The program head at the Papua Plantation Agency, Gatot Budi Santoso, said the agency managed 700 hectares of sago plantations in three districts this year. The three districts are Nabire, Jayapura and Keerom, which border Papua New Guinea. A total budget of Rp 3.2 billion was disbursed to implement the program.
