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West Flores farmers return to local food
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Helena Nanung (third from right), 65, and several farmers show grains of red sorghum they have just harvested from their field at Kampung Sambir, Wae Mose village, South Lembor district, West Manggarai, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, recently. (thejakartapost.com/Markus Makur)
T
he West Flores administration in cooperation with the Manggarai Catholic Church Institution has been campaigning for residents to return to local foods such as tubers and sorghum.
Ruteng Archdiocese’s head of economic and social development Rev. Benediktus Jaya said the campaign, which promotes local wisdom and food resilience, was in line with the ideals of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
Benediktus said Wednesday in Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara, that the Catholic Church had facilitated hundreds of farmer groups to cultivate local crops.
“Our team trained 70 women to process local crops into local meals,” he said.
The movement, he said, had been underway for some time and the most popular staple food so far was sorghum.
Vicaress General of Ruteng Archdiocese Rev. Alfons Segar said human beings’ destruction of nature constituted an ecological sin. Therefore, he urged farmers to seek ecological repentance by switching to organic farming.
One participant, Vinsensius Jebarus, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that farmers in West Flores still used chemical fertilizer but some farmers had started using the organic method. (evi)
