Replacing Rice as the Staple Food with Local Food in Indonesia

Rice is a staple food in Indonesian diet and the source of livelihood for about 20 million households (Frederick and Worden, 1993). Because of this Indonesian diet, people find it hard to accept that many foods are available such as carbohydrate sources in Indonesia other than rice. They assume that rice is the best choice and rice has a more superior image than other carbohydrate sources such as bread, potatoes or corn. It is commonly thought that cooked rice is easy to boil and has a neutral taste. Moreover, the availability of rice in many islands in Indonesia is better than other foods.

Based on the Indonesian agricultural history, the government led by Soeharto in 1980 created a policy that made Indonesia self reliant for rice. Lassa (2005) reported that Indonesia has attempted to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production since 1952 and that their 1980 success did not last long. This policy eventually had a negative impact on the diversity of food resources. Furthermore, many indigenous plants did not survive because of a decreasing demand. Moreover, local foods as carbohydrate sources have decreased because the government has focuses solely on rice as a staple food for a long time.

This government policy is not the way to strengthen food security in Indonesia. A better approach would be to discover the potential of indigenous foods, especially foods such as carbohydrate sources and in this way to replace rice as a staple food with local foods.

Indigenous knowledge of various food sources could be used to reach self sufficiency in carbohydrate resources. Basically, many staple foods are utilized in every Indonesian island. Maluku citizen and Papua people consume sago as a major carbohydrate source. Moreover, Gorontalo inhabitants and Maduranesse eat corn in their daily life; and other residents in Middle Java Province, East Java Province and Lampung region use processed cassavas as their main meal.

One example of indigenous knowledge of local food can be found in Cimahi, West Java. Early on 1924, Cimahi residents in West Java have consumed “limbah aci”, processed cassavas into dried food and well preserved until six months. This process is seen as the symbol of loving their land. Even though limbah aci requires a long storage time, this period of storage does not effect to its nutritional quality. West Javanese have eaten limbah aci as a staple food as part of their daily culture for a long period (Nainggolang in Widiyanto, 2010).

Another reason why local foods should be promoted is exactly this connection between local peoples and their local foods. In Madura Island, for instance, eating corn is a part of Madura culture. Cultural observer Syaifuddin Miftah observed (cited in Rifqi 2009) that the unpopularity of rice compared with corn is not caused by the lack of rice, but rather, because of the Maduranesse culture generated many centuries ago. Corn is planted and consumed as a major food. Sometimes, Maduranesse cook the grinded corn with a small amount of rice. Moreover, they consume rice mainly at special events, for instance to celebrate Lebaran, to honor guests and so on.

The ability of people to utilize and produce their own food should be assessed in terms of discovering new techniques to enhance local food values. The government needs to make sure that this local knowledge is exploited as fully as possible. Moreover, this knowledge will carry massive advantages for future values of food and will be as the basic references for the government to utilize and produce other staple foods. In fact, both the innovation and effectiveness of new technologies support the values of local food. Besides the increasing of food qualities such as nutrition through technology such as giving added value to local foods, new technologies such as processing Durian peel into various foods have provided better ways for preserving and processing food.

One of the successful technologies to enhance local food values is provided by Unggul Abinowo in Malang, East Java. In 1984 Unggul Abinowo established the Center of Integral Agribusiness Development (SPAT) that focused on enhancing the value of sweet potatoes not only as a staple food, but also processing these potatoes into other kinds of food. Sweet potatoes are created into “Bakpao Telo”, the first innovative food to replace wheat as a basic material of bread in Indonesia. Also these potatoes are made into keripik telo, bakpia telo, telo noodles, telo ice cream, and telo juice. In fact, this agribusiness exports sweet potato flour to South Korea and helps Indonesia to increase its income (Abinowo, 2003).

Discovering a new technology can also improve the quality of local foods. For example, processing Durian peel into other varieties of food, such as jam (jelly) and syrup is one of the innovative discoveries to improve the local food in Karang Intan village, South Kalimantan.
This innovation can rise local values and enhance the nutrition of Durian peel. Consequently, the government needs to utilize and promote this technology to societies with providing access to information about the potential benefits of local foods. 

Social education is one of the approaches that helps people gain access to information about how to substitute rice as a main carbohydrate source and how to add local value to local food types. Social education could help societies to understand the function of local food and to know the potential benefit of these foods.
Moreover, this education offers information about healthy food habits and changes these habits so that they include a variety of foods, especially carbohydrate-rich foods. Societies are not as an object of education; but rather, these should be as a subject of education. So, people would be activated as participants or leaders to extend the information.

To sum up, discovering the potential of local foods and new technologies of processing these foods are very necessary in term of replacing rice as a staple food in Indonesia. Moreover, the preservation of indigenous knowledge and food resources should be encouraged by the government to ensure self-reliance on food security. Also, social education is needed to support the program of self sufficiency of foods.

References
1. Abinowo U. Bakpao telo, terobosan baru penghemat devisa. [Internet] 2003 [cited 2010 June 15]. Available from: http://www.litbang.deptan.go.id/artikel/one/31/pdf/Bakpao%20Telo,%20Terobosan%20Baru%20Penghemat%20Devisa.pdf
2. Frederick WH. and RL Worden. Indonesia: a country study. Washington: GPO for the library of congress. [Internet] 1993 [cited 2010 Aug 10]. Available from: http://www.countrystudies.us/indonesia/
3. Lassa J. Politik ketahanan pangan Indonesia1950-2005. [Internet] 2009 [cited 2010 May 15]. Available from: http://www.zef.de/module/register/media/3ddf_Politik%20Ketahanan%20Pangan%20Indonesia%201950-2005.pdf
4. Widiyanto A. Krisis pangan: singkong dan jagung kenapa tidak? [Internet] 2010 [cited 2010 May 15]. Available from: http://www.solidaritasperempuan.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121%3Akrisis-pangan-singkong-dan-jagung-kenapa-tidak&catid=48%3Akedaulatan-pangan&Itemid=93〈=en
5. Rifqi A. Pemanfaatan tanaman jagung di Madura sebagai bahan pangan utama. [Internet] 2009 [cited 2010 June 5]. Available from: http://www.rantanie.blogspot.com/2009/04/pemanfaatan-tanaman-jagung-zea-mays-l.html