TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Center for Strategic Food Studies (PKPS) will organize The National Corn Convention around September 2017. The convention is conducted to examine the corn commodity industry which is considered to have not shown ideal conditions in recent years, whereas corn is a strategic commodity.
Corn is considered strategic because its derivative products, e.g feed, becomes food for chicken livestock. Meanwhile, chicken meat and eggs are the cheapest source of protein for the people.
PKPS Chairman, Siswono Yudo Husodo, states, efforts to educate the nation's daily life can be initiated, among others, from eating a lot of protein. "The cheapest protein is chicken and chicken eggs.The feed source of the chickens is corn so we have to ensure corn availability at reasonable prices, to guarantee the availability of chicken and chicken eggs," he said during a press conference at Jakarta Design Center, South Jakarta, on Monday, August 7, 2017.
Siswono describes the condition of corn that has not been ideal by comparing chicken meat consumption by Indonesian people with other countries. "At this time, the consumption of Indonesian chicken is 10 kilograms per capita per year and chicken eggs 6.3 kilograms per capita per year. This is still relatively low. Chicken meat in Malaysia is 40 kilograms per person, we are still 10 kilograms."
In addition, the requirement of corn for animal feed also competes with substitution materials, e.g wheat feed (wheat for low quality livestock). The use of wheat should not be allowed to grow because Indonesia can not produce wheat, therefore we must rely on imported products.
The National Corn Convention will involve all stakeholders associated with this commodity industry and is expected to provide a solution to corn production not only to feed the livestock, but to export to other countries.
LIDWINA TANUHARDJO | WAWAN PRIYANTO
