At World Food Day 2010, our government launched the ‘One Day No Rice’ campaign. Was it effective? Well, the statistic shows that there is indeed a decline on national rice consumption, from 139.15 kg/capita/year in 2010 to 113.48 kg/capita/year in 2011. Although this number is still high compared to average world consumption (60 kg/capita/year) and other countries (80 kg/capita/year in Malaysia, 70 kg/capita/year in Thailand and 58 kg/capita/year in Japan), the government may be relieved. But that decline could have come from the changes of consumption from rice to wheat-products. That is not a good thing! Indonesia does not produce wheat in large scale. We are still importing wheat from other countries, mainly from Australia. And the more we depend on imported products, the further we are to guarantee a stable food security for the nation.
On the other hand, Indonesia has various sources of carbohydrate besides rice: maize, cassava, potato, sweet potato (with many varieties such as purple and orange sweet potatoes), pumpkin, breadfruit, sago, legumes/beans, and many types of local roots and tubers. Yams (talas), ganyong, garut, uwi, gembili, senthe, kimpul, gadung, and suweg are just a few that came to my mind.
In Yogyakarta Province, cassava production reached more than 1 million tonnes in 2010 while rice only reached 823.9 thousands tonnes. Most of the cassavas are processed into gaplek (sliced dried cassava). With the improvement of technology for small/home industry, some farmers’ associations are now able to process cassava into ‘MOCAF’, modified cassava flour. Three kilograms of cassava yield one kilogram of Mocaf. This flour can be used to substitute or reduce the use of wheat flour in many products. For cookies, we can use up to 100% Mocaf substitution. I tried to use 40% Mocaf for pie crust, and it was great! For egg noodles, we can use 15-30% Mocaf substitution. If all industries in Yogyakarta use Mocaf to substitute wheat flour (at least 10%), think how much we can reduce our dependence on imported wheat flour!
There is a small industry in Srandakan, Bantul Regency, which produces ‘mi lethek’, literally means ‘dirty noodles’. The noodles were made of cassava starch (tapioca) and gaplek. The appearance may not be too attractive to common people. But mi lethek already has quite a number of aficionados; including this nation’s elites (a source mentioned that Ministry of Agriculture ordered 50 kg of mi lethek each month to be sent to Cikeas residence).
The examples above only came from cassava alone. There are still many ways to explore our local products. PKMT (Pusat Kajian Makanan Tradisional/ Center for Traditional Food Studies) and BPTP (Balai Pengembangan Teknologi Pertanian/ Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology) are continuously conducting researches in local food. The results are ready to be put into practice in our daily life.
Many Indonesians do not consider having a meal if they haven’t eaten rice. So, when the alternatives to rice become readily available in the market, there is still a question for you to answer: Are you willing to change your menu?
--Dec.2011--
