About 300,000 people or 15.2 percent of South Sulawesi province"s population of seven million are threatened by food shortages because of economic factors, ANTARA quoted a local food official as saying. Most of the people at risk were living in the Jenoponto district, the cities of Makassar and Parepare, according to Kasim Alwi, head of South Sulawesi"s Food Resilience Agency (BKP). Beside the people threatened by food shortages, 14.7 percent of the province"s population was already suffering from undernourishment, Kasim said. The undernourished people included 239,364 infants under five years old or about 1.89 percent of the total spread in South Sulawesi"s 24 districts and cities. Kasim said the main factor underlying the situation was the people"s exclusive dependence on rice as a food source. There were actually many other food sources with higher nutritional value than rice but because of economic factors, most of South Sulawesi people could not afford them, he said. South Sulawesi people"s average rice consumption was 880,000 tons per year and the per capita consumption 110 kilograms. This was very high compared to rice consumption in neighboring country Malaysia where the figure was only 88 kilograms. --SPA
