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Up to 45 million Indonesians at risk of hunger: Home Ministry
A high-ranking government official estimates that 7 to 16 percent of the country’s population is vulnerable to starvation amid declining domestic rice production.
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A farmer spreads fertilizer on his paddy field in Lamteuba, Aceh, on Aug. 22, 2022. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
A
high-ranking government official estimates that 7 to 16 percent of Indonesia’s population is vulnerable to starvation amid declining domestic rice production.
Given the country’s population of 281.6 million as of June, based on Statistics Indonesia data, that would translate to between 20 million and 45 million people being at risk of hunger.
“We are still a little bit better than Thailand in terms of food security,” Home Ministry Regional Development Director General Restuardy Daud said on Wednesday during an event organized by the National Movement for Controlling Food Inflation (GNPIP).
In his speech broadcast live on YouTube by Bank Indonesia, Restuardy also compared Indonesia’s situation with that of Singapore, a country that he said had greater food security despite relying strongly on imports and having a much smaller landmass.
Restuardy noted Indonesia’s challenge in securing rice when major rice exporters India, Cambodia and Thailand curbed shipments and went on to say that resilience and reliability in the food trade were critical to ensure food security, which had to be supported by technology, logistics and governance.
“For example, we have rice milling that can increase efficiency [and] raise the quality of rice production to a premium [level],” he said.
Read also: Govt hikes rice import quota 1.6m tonnes to bolster reserves
