Courtyard plays an important role in maintaining food resilience.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Regional governments must build courtyard economy in an effort to develop enough food supplies, an expert has said.
"Courtyard economically has significant benefit in that it serves as food and nutritional sources," said Bambang Shergi Laksmono, social welfare experts of the University of Indonesia (UI), here on Thursday.
He said that as a food barn, courtyard plays an important role in maintaining food resilience. People during the ancient time utilized their yards or premises as food barns by planting tubers whic could last for years and could adapt to different seasons and weather conditions.
"Tubers can be harvested in a long time and can be left untapped for years in courtyard until residents needed especially where there is famine or failure (in food crops like rice)," he said.
So, courtyards could be used as alternative food sources when there is famine or harvest failure, or at a time when the people faced difficulties in obtaining food stuff, he said.
"This means that courtyards have high strategic economic functions whose proceeds could be harvested or exploited anytime and serve as food assurances for rural society," Bambang Shergi Laksmono of UI said.
Besides food crops such different fruit plants and vegetables as nutritional sources for the family, courtyard could also be used to breed small animals such as fish, rabbit, chickens and others as a cheap protein source for the family, he said.
(Uu.A014/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
