Ponorogo Regency Government Targets To Reduce Stunting Cases By 7 Percent

Ponorogo Regent Sugiri Sancoko (ANTARA/HO - SDP)

JAKARTA - The government of Ponorogo Regency, East Java, is targeting to reduce stunting cases by up to seven percent from last year's figure (2022), which recorded stunting data of around 14.2 percent.

"Ponorogo's stunting rate is actually far below East Java and nationally. However, we are still optimizing our efforts to reduce it so that the quality of the next generation in Ponorogo is getting better," said Ponorogo Regent Sugiri Sancoko in Ponorogo, Antara, Sunday, February 5.

Referring to the 2021 stunting data, Ponorogo Regency recorded a case rate of 20 percent of the total local population. That ratio then drops to 14.2 percent in 2022.

This year, Sugiri has announced a reduction in stunting or a decrease in cases of stunted growth by up to seven percent.

"This means that in a year our stunting reduction rate is around 5.7 percent, or out of 100 children 14 of them are stunted," said Kang Giri, the nickname of Regent Sugiri.

This year, he continued, Ponorogo is still in second place after Madiun City for the scope of Madiun Raya or ex-Mataraman with the lowest cases, and ranks eighth lowest out of a total of 38 regencies/cities in East Java.

Head of BKKBN Ponorogo, Harjono said from the current data the percentage of stunting rates is far below East Java and the National. For East Java it is at 18.29 percent while nationally it is 21.11 percent.

"So our numbers are good, below East Java and National," he explained.

He confirmed that currently the government has also set a target to reduce stunting at 14 percent by 2024.

In other words, Ponorogo only needs 0.2 percent of the current percentage to reach the target set by the government.

"This means that Ponorogo is close to the set target, still optimistic that it will be able to," he said.

Harjono added, the stunting rate in Ponorogo was obtained from 63 villages spread across 21 sub-districts that had been surveyed.

Determination of villages based on recommendations from the local Central Statistics Agency (BPS). The sample targets ten toddlers per village.

"So that a total of 630 toddlers were sampled in the Indonesian Nutrition Status Study (SSGI) survey," he explained.

Apart from SSGI, there are also other methods, namely through Electronic-Recording and Community-Based Nutrition Reporting (E-PPGBM) or weighing months at the posyandu in February and August. Referring to E-PPGBM, the stunting rate in Ponorogo is 13.92 percent.