"If harvest fails and food difficulty happens we will form a rice buffer stock as an anticipatory measure," Head of the Bali Provincial Social Service Office Ketut Susrama said here on Sunday.
The rice buffer stock would not focus on anticipating the impact of the drought but also on helping affected people, he said.
"We are still monitoring the impact of drought and have yet to receive a report about food difficulty," he said.
If any of the community members needed rice assistance the office would soon distribute rice from the buffer stock, he said.
"The mechanism of distributing the rice will depend on the results of the monitoring. We will distribute it after calculating their need," he said.
Each of the residents facing food difficulty would receive rice assistance of 400 grams a day. If a family consisted of five members and needed rice assistance for seven days the family would receive rice assistance of 14 thousand grams, he said.
"In essence, the rice assistance will be adjusted to the need of the residents concerned," he said.
He said each district in the province would also allocate 100 tons of rice for the purpose.
Head of the Karangasem District Social Service Office I Made Sosiawan said Seraya in Karangasem subdistrict and Bunutan in Abang subdistrict were the most vulnerable areas and had high risk of food shortage due to drought.(*)
S012/H-NG
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
