Food, Diversity, Vulnerability and Social Change: Research Findings from Insular Southeast Asia (Mansholt Publication Series)

Food, diversity, vulnerability and social change Research findings from insular Southeast Asia

M a n sh o lt p u b l i c at i o n se r i e s - Vo l u m e 9

Anke Niehof

Food, diversity, vulnerability and social change

Food, diversity, vulnerability and social change Research findings from insular Southeast Asia

Anke Niehof

Mansholt publication series - Volume 9

Wageningen Academic  P u b l i s h e r s

ISBN: 978-90-8686-139-2 e-ISBN: 978-90-8686-671-7 DOI: 10.3920/978-90-8686-671-7

ISSN: 1871-9309

Cover illustration: Hans Borkent

First published, 2010

©Wageningen Academic Publishers The Netherlands, 2010

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned. Nothing from this publication may be translated, reproduced, stored in a computerised system or published in any form or in any manner, including electronic, mechanical, reprographic or photographic, without prior written permission from the publisher: Wageningen Academic Publishers P.O. Box 220 6700 AE Wageningen the Netherlands www.WageningenAcademic.com This publication and any liabilities arising from it remains the responsibility of the author. The publisher is not responsible for possible damages, which could be a result of content derived from this publication.

Mansholt Publication Series The Mansholt Publication Series (MPS) contains peer-reviewed textbooks, conference proceedings and thematic publications focussing on social changes and control processes in rural areas and (agri)food chains as well as the institutional contexts in which these changes and processes take place. MPS provides a platform for researchers and educators who would like to increase the quality, status and international exposure of their teaching materials or of their research output. The Series is named after Sicco Mansholt (1908-1995), who was Minister of Agriculture in The Netherlands from 1945 until 1958. From 1958 until 1972 he was Commissioner of Agriculture and Vice-President of the European Commission. MPS is supported by the Mansholt Graduate School of Social Sciences (MG3S) and CERES Research School for Resource Studies for Development. The quality and contents of the Series is monitored by an interdisciplinary editorial board. The Mansholt Publication Series editors are: Prof. Wim Heijman Prof. Ekko van Ierland Prof. Leontien Visser Prof. Arjen E.J. Wals

Dedicated to my sister Linda

Preface and acknowledgement Indirectly this book serves as a tribute to the late Dr. Karel Neys1, who died in 1992, and bequeathed his estate to a foundation supporting research about household food security and family nutrition in Indonesia and beyond. Before he died, he had founded the Neys-Van Hoogstraten Foundation and had specified the foundation’s objectives and the required composition of its board. The author is a board member. Since its operational start in 1993 the Neys-Van Hoogstraten Foundation (henceforth NHF) has funded more than a hundred research projects in various Asian countries, though the focus is on Southeast Asia, notably Indonesia. The scholars who carried out the research have backgrounds varying from anthropology, agronomy, sociology and home economics, to plant and nutrition sciences. The research covers a broad range of topics with food and nutrition security as common denominators. The researchers have to submit to NHF progress reports and a final report. In some cases the research team of a particular project published their findings in a book or as an article in an academic journal. In those cases the research results can be accessed by a wider audience. However, though the NHF board encourages publication of NHF-funded research and makes money available for English editing, in most cases the research findings are only documented in the final project reports. The motivation for writing this book is to make the results of NHF-funded research accessible to a wider readership. The research topics all relate to the central NHF themes of how people provide for their food and nutrition needs, the constraints they face in trying to do so, and how their practices and strategies are part of diverse and changing ecological, cultural, and institutional contexts. These are urgent themes in countries where food and nutrition insecurity still affects large numbers of people. The regional focus of this book is insular Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines in particular, since these are the countries in which most of the NHF research projects were conducted. Whenever relevant and appropriate, findings from NHF research in other Asian countries will be included in the discussion. The References section lists publications on NHF-research as well as unpublished project reports that were used for the book.

1 Biographic information about Dr. Karel Neys can be found in the booklet by Dr. A.P. den Hartog “Dr. Karel

Neys 1920-1992 and the Neys-Van Hoogstraten Foundation” (The Hague, 2005), published by the foundation, which is available upon request.

Food, diversity, vulnerability and social change 

9

I gratefully acknowledge the support of Wageningen University and Research Centre in granting me sabbatical leave, which enabled me to concentrate on writing this book during the summer months of 2009. I would like to thank the School of Political & Social Enquiry of Monash University, Australia, where I spent the two months of my sabbatical, for the hospitality and collegiality I experienced there, and the facilities it made available. Furthermore, I would like to thank Jeff van Exel for the English editing of the text and the reviewers for their valuable suggestions. Finally, I would like to mention the researchers thanks to whose dedication and hard work this book could be put together. Anke Niehof Wageningen, November 2009

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Food, diversity, vulnerability and social change

Contents Preface and acknowledgement List of figures and tables

9 15

1. Thematic introduction: food as a basic need and beyond 1.1 The changing discourse on food security 1.2 Food and domestic production 1.3 Vulnerability, age and gender 1.4 Methodological issues in measuring food and nutrition security 1.5 Conclusion

21 22 23 26 28 32

2. Diversity of food systems and foods 2.1 Diversity of food systems 2.2 Diversity of foods 2.3 Conclusion

35 35 65 69

3. Vulnerability: age and gender 3.1 Age 3.2 Gender 3.3 Conclusion

71 71 79 92

4. Institutions, policies, programmes and social change 4.1 Institutions 4.2 Policies and programmes 4.3 Social change 4.4 Conclusion

95 95 100 106 110

5. Discussion 5.1 Reflecting on food and poverty linkages 5.2 Diversity, diversification and vulnerability 5.3 Methodological diversity and disciplinary interfaces on the subject

115 115 119 121

Glossary List of acronyms and abbreviations

127 129

References List of reviewed NHF-supported project reports Published sources and PhD theses

131 131 132

Keyword index

139

Food, diversity, vulnerability and social change 

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List of figures and tables List of figures Map of Indonesia with research locations. Map of Philippines with research locations. 1.1. Interrelationships between food security, nutrition and care (Balatibat, 2004: 42; adapted from the UNICEF model). 1.2. Linkages between the household and the food chain (Niehof, 1998: 45). 2.1. Processed and non-processed Indonesian soybean products (Muchtadi, 2007: 5).

18 19 24 25 67

List of tables 2.1. Household food production activities according to ecological area (Balatibat, 2004: 76). 2.2. Utilization of harvest from food production according to ecological area (Balatibat, 2004: 77). 2.3. Prevalence of malnutrition among lowland and coastal children 6-36 months old (Balatibat, 2004: 86). 2.4. Agro-ecosystems in Alegre and Plaridel (Roa, 2007: 130-134). 2.5. Consumption of cereals, root crops, animal protein, soy bean products, vegetables and fruits of Subang households according to agroecological area (Suhanda et al., 2009: 66-72). 2.6. Economic status of rural and urban households in Javanese provinces (Muchtadi, 2007: 22-23). 2.7. Frequency of consumption by rural and urban households of the most popular soybean products according to household heads (Muchtadi, 2007: 53). 2.8. Nutritional status based on body mass index (BMI) of rural and urban teenagers, adults, and elderly (Muchtadi, 2007: 74-76). 2.9. Body weight for age, body height for age, and weight for height in categories based on z-scores (+2) of rural and urban children under five (Muchtadi, 2007: 72). 2.10. Weight for age, height for age, and weight for height z-score categories of rural and urban children of primary school age (Muchtadi, 2007: 73). 2.11. Sources of livelihood of Baduy husbands and wives in percentages (Khomsan et al., 2009: 74-75). 2.12. Reading and writing skills of Baduy husbands and wives in percentages (Khomsan et al., 2009: 72-73). 2.13. Monthly per capita expenditures in rupiah of the three Baduy groups (Khomsan et al., 2009: 79-80).

Food, diversity, vulnerability and social change 

37 37 38 40 42 44 45 46 47 48 54 54 55

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2.14. Frequency of selected types of foods consumed per time unit (mean and standard deviation) for the three Baduy groups (Khomsan et al., 2009: 108-110). 55 2.15. Percentage of Required Dietary Allowances (RDA) reached per nutrient of daily per capita food intake for the three Baduy groups (Khomsan et al., 2009: 112, 115, 119). 57 2.16. Percentage of Required Dietary Allowances (RDA) reached per nutrient, percentage of RDA