President Jokowi: We Don't Force Papuans To Eat Rice!

President Joko Widodo at the PDIP National Working Meeting (Wardhany T/VOI)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo emphasized that each region has its own food advantages. He asked all parties not to force an area to uniform their food choices.

This was stated by Jokowi at the PDIP II National Working Meeting (Rakernas) at the Party School, Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta today.

"Each region must have its own food advantages according to the characteristics of the land, and the conditions of its people, and according to the eating traditions of its citizens. Don't be forced. Because each region has a different character," said Jokowi, Tuesday, June 21. .

Jokowi took the example of the Papua region. Land in Papua, according to Jokowi, is more suitable for planting sago, in accordance with the staple food of the Papuan people. Because of that, he views that no one can force the Papuan people to eat rice like most people do.

"Papua, for example, the land is suitable for growing sago. The staple food tradition is also sago. Let's not force ourselves to eat rice, eat rice, and we are forced to plant rice, to eat rice. character," said Jokowi.

Another example that Jokowi has given is East Nusa Tenggara. According to him, the land there is suitable for planting sorghum and corn. In fact, the shift from planting sorghum and corn to rice in NTT was wrong.

"Let's not force NTT out of its power. Moreover, sorghum can be an alternative to wheat whose price is currently soaring very high. We depend on imports from outside. After the war, now sorghum has risen above 30 percent. Our imports, wheat, are now this is 11 million tons. It's very big. That's something we have to start thinking about," he said.

From this condition, Jokowi emphasized that the government and political parties must work together to build self-reliance and food sovereignty in the future.