VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has urged the people to consume local foods as the main nutritional intake to prevent stunting or dwarfishness and malnutrition.

"Indonesia has many sources of nutritious food ranging from nuts, fruits, vegetables, fish, side dishes and others," said Jokowi on the sidelines of the implementation of supplement food feeding (PMT) progrem in Bantargadung District, Sukabumi District, West Java on Sunday.

According to him, the central government is currently focusing on providing supplement foods for children under the age of five, babies, pregnant women and lactating mothers with local foodstuffs such as bananas, green beans, papaya, fish, tempeh and others. The potential of such resources should be utilized as an additional food in improving the nutrition of the people. In addition, Jokowi instructed the Family Welfare Movement (PKK) team, integrated health service post (posyandu) cadres and Public Health Care Service (puskesmas) officers to carry out PMT regularly.

PMT program aims to reduce the number of malnourished children, stunting and malnutrition. Therefore, their role is very important in maintaining the nutritional intake of the community.

"Posyandu and PKK cadres must actively monitor the development of every child, toddler and pregnant mother by measuring their weight and height regularly, at least twice a month," he added.

President Jokowi said the program utilizes local products for people`s nutritional intake. It has also been campaigning for this PMT since the last two years and is currently in the middle of implementation, monitoring and evaluation. ( antara )