Indonesia to donate 12,000 tons of rice for ASEAN food security

(philstar.com) December 22, 2009 11:25 PM

JAKARTA (Xinhua) - Indonesia, which has abundant agricultural resources, will donate more than 12,000 tons of rice for food security of the Association of South East Asian Nations ( ASEAN), the country's Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday.

Sutarto Ali Musro, a director at the ministry, said the donation aims at assisting the member countries of ASEAN+3 (China, South Korea and Japan) when they are hit by natural disasters.

"We are to provide 12,000 tons of rice to the ASEAN integrated food security. It will be donated when disaster hits the member country," he said.

Vice Minister of Agriculture Bayu Krisnamurthi had earlier said Indonesia was committed to helping ASEAN integrated food security.

The ASEAN integrated food security aims at providing food stock in the region to prevent the member countries from food insufficiency.