The Shift of Staple Food from Sago to Rice: A Study about Food Security and Indigenous Communities

Abstract

Food security is still becoming a crucial issue in developing countries nowadays, either in urban or rural areas. There are many factors triggered this condition, such as the increase in population pressure and conflict, privatization and changing tenure arrangements, poverty, social differentiation and also environmental degradation. It’s undeniable that food security is a multidimensional problem, especially for people who lived in rural or isolated areas. In Mentawai Islands, a district located in the western part of Indonesia, the indigenous people depend on forest product (sago) as their main source of food. However, since 2012, the government has destroyed their food culture by establishing the ‘National Food Security Improvement Program’ and conducting the agricultural intensification as well as establishing 600 hectares of new rice fields in six sub - districts; South Pagai, North Pagai, Sikakap, South Sipora, North Sipora, and South Siberut. This study is conducted comprehensively using the Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (FSVA) to understand and describe the exact profiles of food-insecurities and vulnerable households. Furthermore, it also identified the risks and vulnerabilities of food consumption in Mentawai communities. Findings depict that shifting or transforming the food culture from sago to rice is a serious issue because socio-cultural aspects influence it and surely the government has to make a parallel policy that can accommodate the people needs, not only prioritize the national development agenda.

Sago and Rice are Ambiguous: Food Security Under the Food Hood of Development Discourse in Mentawai Islands

“…One hour of sago production produces about 2.6 kg of starch. Sago is not only food for Mentawai people DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24014/sb.v20i2.23677 but also related to the culture that they have been practicing all this time to sustain their sociocultural life (Delfi, 2011;Delfi & Weintré, 2014b;Erwin, 2017;Erwin et al, 2022Erwin et al, , 2023Irwandi, 2021Irwandi, , 2022Persoon, 1992;Pradipta, 2019;Ridwan, 2019;saleleubaja, 2020). Moreover, ecologically and knowledgeably, Mentawai people do not have agricultural traditions, so the government's efforts to convert sago to rice are also increasingly problematic for their food access (Azhari et al, 2017;Ridwan, 2019).…”

“…Second, the "National Food Security Improvement" program in 6 sub-districts (South Pagai, North Pagai, Sikakap, South Sipora, North Sipora and South Siberut) in Mentawai Islands Regency with the aim of agricultural intensification and building 600 ha of new rice fields to produce rice (Erwin, 2017;Erwin et al, 2022Erwin et al, , 2023Irwandi, 2021;Pradipta, 2019). Thus, the rice produced from agricultural land can meet the needs of the Mentawai people for the fulfillment of rice (Erwin et al, 2022;Irwandi, 2022).…”

Sagu dan Uma: Simbol Ketahanan Pangan Masyarakat Mentawai

“…Hal ini dikarenakan kondisi topografi dan geografi daerah Mentawai yang lebih cocok digunakan untuk pengembangan tanaman sagu sebagai suatu bahan pokok serta sedikitnya pengetahuan masyarakat Mentawai dalam budidaya padi (Salamanang, Rianto, & Setriani, 2022). Tak hanya pada hal yang demikian, dinamika produksi beras berkualitas serta dapat diakses oleh setiap lapisan masyarakat Mentawai yang tergolong lebih sukar menjadikan harga jual beras jauh lebih mahal jika dibandingkan dengan harga jual sagu (Pradipta, 2019).…”

The indigenous uses of plants from Siberut, Mentawai, Indonesia

“…Previous reforms enforced throughout Siberut and greater Mentawai sought to replace sagu swamps with rice cultivation programs (Pradipta 2019), and the Mentawai people were coerced to replace sagu with 'modern' products and foods (Persoon 2001). Not only did this replacement ignore the cultural significance of sagu and displace a crucial food, building and medicinal resource (Pradipta 2019), but branded a nutritious food source as primitive and only for the poor -diminishing its status in consumers' eyes. The discouragement of sagu also failed to acknowledge the ecological efficiency of the palm for staple food production (WWF 1980;Pradipta 2019).…”

“…Not only did this replacement ignore the cultural significance of sagu and displace a crucial food, building and medicinal resource (Pradipta 2019), but branded a nutritious food source as primitive and only for the poor -diminishing its status in consumers' eyes. The discouragement of sagu also failed to acknowledge the ecological efficiency of the palm for staple food production (WWF 1980;Pradipta 2019). WWF (1980) highlighted several immense ecological benefits of sagu: the palm is easily regenerated, requires no pesticide input, and provides food sources and habitat corridors for multiple species (Figure 10).…”