Prabowo Was Surprised That Professors Were Also Nyinyir About The MBG Program

JAKARTA - The Free Nutrition Food Program (MBG), which is a priority program for the government, now often gets conflict and is being criticized by several experts. This was realized by President Prabowo Subianto himself.

He made this statement when delivering his speech at the Launch of the Indonesian Planting Movement Program (Gerina), in Banyuasin Regency, South Sumatra, Wednesday, April 23.

"We provide a nutritious food program (MBG), some are against it, some are sarcastic. I'm surprised that there are professors who are sarcastic. But that's okay, let the professor learn from Ustaz Adi Hidayat later," he said, quoted from the Presidential Secretariat's Youtube show.

In fact, this program, Prabowo continued, provides benefits for children. The goal is that future generations will not be stunted. Meanwhile, the national stunting rate reaches 25 percent.

"We want to be sure that no Indonesian child is hungry. We want to convince that Indonesian children do not grow up because they are malnourished, the number of which is quite large, 25 percent. Of the four Indonesian children, one is malnourished. If I go around, (time) to the Middle East, the desert, cannot be planted. But, the people, their children are big. The leaders think, the land they find difficult to maintain, the water they find difficult to protect, we must eliminate hunger from Indonesian earth," continued the Head of State.

Moreover, MBG is not only intended for children, pregnant women are also beneficiaries. "There are those who say that pregnant women are the important thing to feed. These experts do not learn, do not read that the MBG program starts from pregnant women. Maybe the only country in the world, where pregnant women are delivered food to their homes. Try to show them where there is a country now," said Prabowo.

In fact, the former Minister of Defense said that many other countries wanted to visit Indonesia, study the MBG program. "I got a letter from the leadership of other countries, learning to Indonesia, want to learn about nutritious food. I said, we haven't, later at the end of the year we will finish everything," said Prabowo.

On the other hand, the presence of the MBG program can actually improve the economy of all villages. The reason is, village funds are now increasing significantly. Prabowo said, the current increase in village funds is 500 percent.

"What does that mean, which now runs for several years on village fund programs, Rp. 1 billion per village per year. With a nutritious food program, the money circulating in each village is added to Rp. 6 billion one year. Imagine from Rp. 1 billion to Rp. 6 billion or Rp. 1 billion to Rp. 5 billion, imagine, it's an increase of 500 percent in one year. Why? Because every day to feed children, the National Nutrition Agency needs to buy eggs, buy chickens, buy fish, buy vegetables, buy tomatoes, buy cucumbers, buy cucumbers, this is the village economy, the sub-district of life," he explained.