The recently opened East Nusa Tenggara Food Summit has provided various stakeholders the opportunity to work together to achieve food self-reliance in the predominantly Christian province.
Kupang Archbishop Petrus Turang praised the initiative, singling out religious denominations for developing food self-reliance in the province.
"Everyone should play a role in accomplishing food self-reliance. The Church has provided counseling to improve farming techniques and fulfill food and nutritional needs, as well as uphold the principles of justice and dignity for people to live a proper life," he said Wednesday in Maumere.
Tjuk Eko Hari Basuki, head of the Agriculture Ministry's Center for Food Crisis and Stocks, acknowledged the role played by religious figures in tackling the province's food crisis.
"It's very important to sit together and map out the potential benefits for the respective stakeholders, especially religious leaders playing an important role in the province," Tjuk said.
Archbishop Turang said a physical and social infrastructure would have to be developed effectively for the province to make the most of its agricultural potential.
"People need support to be able to cultivate local seedlings, raise livestock and obtain land ownership rights, so youths do not desert the villages and leave them die," he said.
Local communities and religious groups in Sumba are currently cultivating a variety of crops. Tjuk said the province's food independence hung on the development of local crops because of their respective qualities.
"Agriculture here should not be expensive, given the surrounding natural wealth," he said.
The East Nusa Tenggara Food Summit is a joint effort by the provincial administration, the Agriculture Ministry, the local farming community and NGOs.
It is expected to come up with a plan of action with the stakeholders to address the chronic food crisis plaguing the province.
Of the 20 regencies in East Nusa Tenggara, only Ngada regency is not on the national list of 100 regencies experiencing a food crisis. As many as 2.4 percent of children below the age of five living in the province suffer from undernourishment and severe malnutrition.
Earlier Tuesday, in his keynote speech at the opening of the summit, East Nusa Tenggara Vice Governor Esthon Foennay called on all interested parties to work together to resolve the food crisis and poverty threatening more than half the province's population.
The summit, to be held over three days, brings together local and national food experts to discuss strategies to pull the province out of its deepening problem.
"The effectiveness of any program implemented, or the amount of money allocated for this cause is meaningless unless all stakeholders sit together to plan, implement, evaluate and arrange further steps," Foennay said.
He added the people of East Nusa Tenggara would only attain prosperity through production diversification and adequate food stocks, especially corn.
Dwi Astutim, an activist from the Bina Desa group representing the Alliance for Prosperous Villages, said the summit had opened the way for stakeholders to sit together and seek the best solutions to address the food crisis and poverty issues in the province.
"The food crisis is very basic and needs to be comprehensively resolved," she said.
The problem is blamed on the dominance of the dry season in this part of the country, lasting for up to nine months a year, compared to the much shorter rainy season of only four months at most.
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