Food Plant Solutions and Priscilla Hall Memorial Foundation in Indonesia – English

Who we are:

Food Plant Solutions is a not for profit, Rotary based, aid organisation whose mission is to provide guidance, resources, information and technical support to international food aid providers so they can assist people in developing countries to better understand the value of local food plants.

Our work is underpinned by the Food Plants International database of edible plants for all countries of the world, developed by Burnie Agricultural Scientist, Bruce French.   This database contains over 27,000 edible plants for all countries of the world and includes information such as: how to grow, where to grow, what parts are edible and nutritional information.   We utilise the database to identify locally adapted food plants with the highest level of nutrients that are missing from the diet and giving rise to malnutrition and other serious health problems, such as blindness, intellectual disabilities, anaemia and impaired growth.

We do not tell people in a country what they should be eating but help them get access to information and make better choices on local food plants.  Most importantly we try to focus on developing a better understanding of not just which plants are edible but the ones with the highest nutritional value.  We focus on self-sustainable solutions that empower people.

The project was designed to address malnutrition through the use of readily available and local food sources. In many cases these have been neglected as they are no longer thought fashionable or because various aid programs have pushed western plants. Western type crops often have much higher inputs and have been produced against a completely different set of paradigms than what is required for very poor regions. For example corn uses vast volumes of water and in conventional western cropping is often used to mop up excess N in some soils.  Similarly cabbage is a rather poor source of nutrients and whilst filling, in some cases can actually make nutrient deficiency worse!

Food Plant Solutions does not charge for the work it provides as we do not want cost to be a barrier from allowing people to access this information.  Quite deliberately we do not have people in-country as FPS aims to link in with existing aid providers whether they be Government, Non-Government, Rotary, Non-Rotary.  It seems that most projects (whether they be housing, water, schools, maternal health, etc.), would be further enhanced by adding a Food Plant Solutions component to them.  Most people who are in dire situations require a sustainable way to grow and access nutritious food.

Food Plant Solutions – a self-sustainable solution that empowers the local people to make informed choices about what plants to grow that will nutritiously feed their family.

Food Plant Solutions and Priscilla Hall Memorial Foundation – Working Together:

Following an enquiry from Rotary Club of Glen Innes member, Don Hall, a Food Plant Solutions (FPS) project has been established in Indonesia. Don is the founder of the Priscilla Hall Memorial Foundation (PHMF), a not-for-profit aid organisation based in Indonesia. Established in 2004, PHMF has a proven record in delivering positive outcomes to those most in need. Recently PHMF was recognised by ‘Wowshack’ as a Foundation that makes Indonesia a better place.

Since 2008, PHMF have supported Yayasan Usaha Mulia (YUM), a not-for-profit registered charity foundation in Indonesia with over 40 years’ experience, which is audited annually. YUM have provided significant support to this project to date.

Recently, Slow Food Bali (SFB) joined the project. SFB are committed to sustainable, local food security, and are therefore well aligned with FPS. They have undertaken to spear-head the distribution of our publications through their extensive networks including: Slow Food Youth Network (Agricultural Faculty of Udyana University, Bali), Slow Food Jogjakarta and NGO’s such as East Bali Poverty Project, Biosphere Foundation, Project Hope Sumba and Rotary Clubs that have agricultural projects in Bali and Java (District 3420).

To Date:

A field guide, ‘Potentially Important Food Plants of Indonesia’, has been created. This publication contains information on approximately 40 edible plants, from all the major food groups, and all high in nutrients. The guide focuses on neglected and under-utilised species; plants that will grow with minimal inputs (chemicals, fertilisers, etc). It details how and where to grow them, the nutritional value, what parts are edible, how to use those parts and a photo to make identification easier. The aim of the guide is to enable Indonesians to make informed choices about how to feed their family / community nutritious food, in a self-sustaining way.

Based on the field guide, a second publication, ‘Food Plants for Healthy Diets in Indonesia’, has been produced. It contains lots of pictures and little text – ideal for those with limited literacy. History shows that this is a great way of getting the information out into communities.

Both publications are being translated into Bahasa, which will increase who can access them. Once translation has occurred, the next stage is to have them both printed, thus enabling distribution.

For further information or to make a donation please contact us at info@foodplantsolutions.org