Starfruit (malangkota.go.id) – Deputy Mayor of Malang Ir. H. Sofyan Edi Jarwoko attended the peak event of the 41st World Food Day Commemoration and presented prizes for the 2021 urban farming competition held by the Malang City Food Security and Agriculture Service (Dispangtan), Friday (29/10/2021).
World Food Day is celebrated every October 16 and in 2021 the theme raised by the Ministry of Agriculture is 'Increasing Agriculture, Safe Food Amidst the Global Crisis Pandemic.' The aim is to strengthen cooperation and improve effective functional coordination of all components of government and society to support food security.
For food security, Bung Edi, Sofyan Edi Jarwoko's nickname, said that his party will continue to make maximum efforts towards a shared awareness by popularizing the culture of planting in the community.
"Therefore, the steps are to provide support in the form of goods, assistance for agricultural production facilities to the community that has been running every year, providing PBB incentives, then implementing urban farming, millennial farmers, all of which are at once to build food security," explained Bung Edi.
If all of this has become a comprehensive activity in the community and in the government environment, said Bung Edi, this has also helped the nutritional needs of the community, both in terms of carbohydrates, vegetables, and so on. "From the many needs, especially if there are products that have been marketed, then this can also increase income in the family," he added.
Bung Edi emphasized that the commemoration of World Food Day is a momentum to be more productive. Given that we are currently in the era of technology, millennial farmers have an important role. "Millennial farmers plant on limited urban agricultural land, but also have a market to sell their produce using the power of ICT. This is cool," said Bung Edi.
He gave an example of one of the agricultural products in Malang City, namely cilembu tubers which can supply 200 tons per month. "That's cool, in the city again. And there are many others. That's why we are now developing the culture of planting tubers in glangsi or sacks. God willing, it will be followed up by Dispangtan," he added.
Meanwhile, Acting Head of Malang City Food and Agriculture Service Sri Winarni, SH., MM said that World Food Day is not only about celebrating the food we enjoy, but also about raising awareness that many people cannot enjoy this privilege. "There are people who are still suffering from hunger. Hunger is a big problem in a number of countries and we need to do more to raise awareness and combat this problem," she explained.
According to him, World Food Day is also a moment to raise awareness about healthy diets and what the body needs. "Malang City currently still has 995 hectares of rice fields left. There must be innovations to maintain urban agricultural productivity to support food sufficiency for the community," he added.
Sri Winarni added that the Malang City Government through Dispangtan has also implemented various extraordinary urban agricultural development programs to support Malang City's food security. (yon/ram)
