ASEAN Urged To Achieve Food Sovereignty

Nusa Dua (Antara Bali) - The 19th ASEAN Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, from November 17-19, 2011 should encourage each member country to achieve food sovereignty, an Indonesian farmer community  leader  said.

"ASEAN must encourage all of its member countries to uphold their respective food sovereignty," Indonesian Farmers Association (SPI) Chairman Henry Saragih said here on Monday.

Henry said  every ASEAN country should have a mechanism to ensure food sovereignty and the availability of  variety of farm equipment to produce sufficient food for its own citizens.

Besides, he added, countries in Southeast Asia should   strengthen their economic or trade defenses against  attacks by  international market speculators.

According to Henry, ASEAN still lacked an effective mechanism to fight or neutralize speculators who often manipulate the food market and thereby trigger food price hikes  in its  markets.

"ASEAN is still not able to withstand international food speculators," said Henry, a recipient of an Institute for Global Justice award in 2006.

He said t as ASEAN chairman in 2011, Indonesia was expected to be able to build food sovereignty in Southeast Asia and  encourage the creation of provisions for each ASEAN country to produce adequate food for all of its citizens.

Referring to the food sovereignty issue, a senior economist with the Institute for Economic and Financial Development, Bustanul Arifin, said  the low level of national food sovereignty in Indonesia was not the fault of  scientists but  weaknesses in the implementation of policies to ensure the effective  production of food in the field.(**)