VP: DO NOT PLAY WITH FOOD RESILIENCE

Jakarta, Dec 12 (ANTARA) - Vice President Boediono has warned all people and functionaries against playing with food resilience as the key to stability.

"Do not play with food resilience because it is the key to the people's welfare and stability," the vice president said at a function to observe Food Resilience Day at his office here on Tuesday.

On the occasion the vice president admitted that he was thankful Indonesia was blessed with food sufficiency while other countries in the other part of the world were facing with food problem.

According to the vice president, food was the source of life and stability among the people.

"Food shortages can become a world problem because it will have the potential of creating conflict, instability, and disaster," Vice President Boediono said.

According to the vice president, India and the Philippines at present were importing rice in large amounts and this could cause the rice price to soar.

Therefore, he said, Indonesia should adopt a strategy to maintain its food supply stability and safety.

"Again I need to say that we should not play with food resilience, and be careless about it," the vice president said.

He added that if the rice prices rose, financially-weak people had to be saved from hunger.

"We have to prepare the Raskin program and we should not be late," the vice president said.

The Raskin program is a national program aimed at helping poor households to fulfill their food needs and reduce their financial burden by providing subsidized rice.

President at the function was also Deputy Agriculture Minister Bayu Krisnamurti who read out a written address of Agriculture Minister Suswono.

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