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Ende, Indonesia. Eighty five villages in the eastern Indonesian island of Flores are under a threat of food shortage as food stocks reach 0-50 percent of need, Ende District Head Don Bosco M Wanggean said.

“Based on the results of a survey conducted in all sub-districts, only two of them had adequate food stocks”, Don Bosco said on Monday. “The food stocks of the two sub-districts, Detusoko and Wewaria, reached more than 99 percent of their needs.”

According to Don Bosco, the other ten sub-districts, Ende Island, Ende, South Ende, Central Ende, North Ende, East Ende, Ndona, East Ndona, Wolowaru, and East Lio, were at risk of facing food shortage.

“In 2009, the district was only able to meet 76.07 percent of its food needs which reached 42,206.21 tons”, he said.

Food production in the district fell short of needs all the time, prompting the local authorities to buy staple food including rice from other parts of the country. Cassava had so far given the biggest contributions to the district’s food stocks with production oversupplying 717.75 tons last year.

The district ran short of 8,701.28 tons of rice, 2,487.73 tons of corn, 110.74 tons of peanut, and 161.59 tons of legumes last year. The low use of farm land for each of the food crops was to blame for the low food stocks.


Antara