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eading international agencies dealing with food, agriculture and health affairs, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), have praised Indonesia'€™s political platform to accelerate the agriculture and maritime industries.

The technical officer of food safety at the WHO Asia-Pacific Regional Office, Peter Hoejskov, said President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s political move was a good start for Indonesia to alleviate poverty and enhance the livelihood of farmers and fishermen in the coming five years.

'€œThe intensified development programs in the agriculture and maritime sectors will not only alleviate poverty and malnutrition among vulnerable groups but will also achieve food security and end that agricultural country'€™s dependence on rice imports,'€ Hoejskov said when asked about President Jokowi'€™s political platform during an Asia-Pacific regional workshop on malnutrition here on Wednesday.

Hoejskov pointed out that malnutrition affected 805 million people worldwide, including 126 million children.

'€œPoverty, malnutrition, agriculture and health are really causal ties and all the four factors have to be put into a national agenda if the country is determined to alleviate poverty,'€ he added.

As an agricultural country in Southeast Asia, Indonesia has to continue to improve people'€™s access to healthy food, especially in remote areas. '€œThe [Indonesian] government should continue widening its domestic market with quality agricultural products to ensure people'€™s access to healthy food,'€ he said.

Hiroyuki Konuma, assistant to FAO director general for the Asia and Pacific regions, concurred but said that malnutrition had to be handled with a comprehensive approach that involved almost all ministries and the private sector.

'€œThe issue should be addressed by making pro-poor and pro-growth agriculture policies and land reform, a good environmental policy to ensure water supply for consumption and for irrigation, the development of basic infrastructure such as roads and bridges to farming centers, good transportation and marketing for agricultural products and better storage,'€ he said, adding that besides good transportation, health development, including basic social security programs, would improve public access to health care.

According to Konuma, all governments, including Indonesia'€™s, should carry out a food diversification program to end Southeast Asian countries'€™ dependence on rice and achieve food sufficiency. '€œGovernments in the region should promote the consumption of maize, banana, sago and many others as staple food.'€

Arif Suyoko, minister counsellor at the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok, meanwhile, said the new government should continue opening up new farmland and stop the intensive conversion of land in Java into housing areas and industrial estates to achieve the country'€™s self-sufficiency program and food security.

'€œIn the past 10 years, the government pledged to open up 2 million hectares of new farmland, but in fact only 200,000 hectares of new farmland were established in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua,'€ he said, adding that Indonesia had imported 170,000 tons of rice from Thailand this year.