BANDUNG, unpas.ac.id – Discussing about food security, it is certainly closely related to its availability, access and fulfilment of food needs for people in an area. Food is one of the pillars of development at the regional, city, provincial and even, national scales.
The issue or topic regarding food security becomes interesting to discuss, as what has been discussed in the Talk Show ‘Harmoni Bagi Negeri’ with the theme ‘Ketahanan Pangan: Sebuah Keniscyaan’ on Friday, 14 January 2022.
The talk show was broadcasted on Harmoni TV YouTube Channel and present a Head of Community Research Institution (Lembaga Penelitian Masyarakat, LPM) as well as teacher in Department of Food Technology Dr. Ir. Asep Dedy Sutrisno, MP as the keynote speaker.
He stated that the national concern related of fulfilment of food needs has already been arranged previously in Law Constitution No. 18/2012 concerning on Food Security stating that “The condition of the fulfilment of food needs for the state as well as individuals is reflected in the availability of sufficient food, both in quantity and quality, safe, diverse, nutritious, equitable and affordable and does not conflict with religion, belief, and culture of the community. Therefore, each and everyone of them can live healthily, active and productive in a sustainable manner”.
According to that, the state has its own obligation to arrange and maintain the food security properly in certain area; especially today, when people are getting to know more about the concept of penta-helix which involves a lot of parties in realizing a program.
“Today we are getting more familiar with the concept of penta-helix, especially those which related to food security. Therefore, five elements of it [penta-helix] (government, academicians, agencies or businessman, society or community, and mass media) should interact to each other and get synergized,” he explained.
In addition to that, government should be able to optimize its own local potential to establish its food security; academicians should take contribution to create innovation as well as researches; businessman along with the society should also be able to make a food product; while mass media takes its role to spread the information widely.
“So, on the corridor of food security, there are also its sub-system, namely availability, distribution and consumption, as well as food safety. These three elements should be our concern,” he continued.
He also stated that ideally, Indonesia as an agricultural country, should have been able to meet the stocks of food, such as rice. He saw this from two approaches.
First, by increasing productivity in some rice-producing areas, so that they are able to store sufficient food. Second, the pattern of public consumption. For example, if there are many rice-producing areas in Java, then in other areas, the productivity of their crops can be increased by planting various other plant variants such as corn and soybeans.
“This is also related to people’s pattern of consuming rice. Just take an example of the Expected Food Patten (Pola Pangan Harapan, PPH) which there are various kinds of food diversity,” he said.
According to the Food Security Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, PPH is an arrangement of various kinds of food based on the proportion of energy balance of various food groups to meet the needs of energy and other nutrients.
The purpose of the PPH is to produce food standard to meet the nutrition of the population by taking into account the balance of nutrition, taste, digestibility, community acceptance, quantity, and purchasing power.
He himself also confirmed that there are two indicators in evaluating a food security in an area, namely through the Index of Food Security (Indeks Ketahanan Pangan, IKP) and analysis of Food Balance (Neraca Bahan Makanan, NBM)
“Food security in an area can be evaluated from three dimensions; availability, access, and food use in the society,” he said.
Dr. Asep Deddy also said that the solution to handle food consumption which is dominantly focuses on the rice is to undergo a food diversification program within society.
“Diversity on main food within society is also needed, in order not to make it concentrated on one main food; since there are a lot of kind of foods, such as animal-based food, fruits, tubers, and so on,” he explained.
“People’s consumption patterns, both per day and month, must be diversified,” he added.
As an an academic in the food sector, he and the Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Engineering Universitas Pasundan are currently developing food processing equipment and will launch it in the near future.
“As a solution for the community, we at Unpas will soon launch an ‘Analog Rice Processing Machine’. Tubers, such as cassava, sweet potato and corn will be later processed into rice by utilizing this kind of technology,” he said.
The talk show was also attended by General Chairman of Indonesian Moslem Merchant Association (Ikatan Saudagar Muslim Indonesia, ISMI) West Java, Rudy Rakian, Section Head of Consumption and Human Resource Development, West Java Office for Food Security and Animal Husbandry, Ir. Nenny Fasyaini, M.M. (RicoB)*
