Healthy chicken programme contributes to the zero hunger SDG 2030
The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government held a special Festival at Taman Menteng Jakarta, on Sunday 7th October to celebrate World Food Day, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Road to #ZeroHunger festival was held to increase public awareness and spotlight action on eradicating hunger and providing healthy food for everyone by 2030. The Ayam ASUH campaign was promoted, which aimed at providing chicken and other poultry meat that is ASUH (Safe, Healthy and Whole, and Halal).
Anies Baswedan, Governor of DKI Jakarta, explained that the DKI Provincial Government worked with its partners in FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture since 2009 in a campaign on the importance of consuming Ayam ASUH, as well as restructuring the market chain. "Because as we know, the consumption of poultry meat in Jakarta is quite high. The more live birds that enter Jakarta, the higher the risk can be to our city (red: avian influenza virus), "said Anies at the opening of “Road to Zero Hunger Festival” today (7/10)
According to Anies, the average number of live birds entering Jakarta reaches one million per day. The Provincial Government issued a Regulation in 2007 to control the movement and trade of live poultry in DKI Jakarta. "We do this to ensure DKI is free of avian influenza, and to provide safe and healthy poultry products for Jakarta residents," he explained.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the last 11 years, there have been 200 cases of Avian Influenza found in humans in Indonesia, which caused 168 deaths. The Greater Jakarta area recorded the highest number of the cases in Indonesia, which may be related to the high level of live poultry entering Jakarta.
Similarly, Samsul Ma’arif, Director of Veterinary Public Heatlh of the Ministry of Agriculture stated that surveillance in the poultry market in the Greater Jakarta area since 2009 indicated that avian flu virus virus is commonly found.
"Currently, there are more than 10 locations of markets and other facilities in DKI Jakarta that have been assisted as pilot project to implement biosecurity practice in the market and to be adopted by the local government to the market and other RPHU," he explained.
Stephen Rudgard, FAO Representative in Indonesia, explained that FAO has worked through the market restructuring program to help market actors and slaughterhouses to process poultry cleanly, to disinfect poultry transport vehicles, improve market cleanliness, and increase the awareness of poultry sellers and consumers. "By improving the quality of poultry processing along the market chain, we believe this will contribute positively to the global goal of combating hunger and providing healthy food for everyone by 2030," he said.
Cooking Ayam Asuh to Celebrate World Food Day
In Jakarta, FAO Indonesia also collaborated with a community activator “Cooking in the Weekend” (MAP), which aims to increase young people’s awareness to improve their understanding of food and agriculture, while also celebrating the richness of Indonesian traditional cuisine.
FAO Indonesia together with Jakarta Provincial Governor, Ministry official and Jakarta Woman Group PKK were cooking Ayam Asuh for Jakarta’s traditional dish Laksa.
" The "Cooking on the Weekend” movement (MAP) invites the young generation to be aware of the richness of Indonesia’s food diversity. We believe a casual style of cooking together is a powerful medium to start the discussion about food, agriculture and all the related issues”, said Farah Mauludynna, one of the initiators of the MAP movement.
FAO Indonesia campaign team also held community drawing in Taman Menteng with fifty students from Jakarta Province as part of International Poster to celebrate 2018 World Food Day.
The peak of 38th World Food Day celebration will be conducted in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, on 18-21 October 2018. President Joko Widodo will attend this celebration together with members of many foreign diplomatic missions.