Indonesia's infrastructure promises fail to solve food spoilage problem

Sukabumi, Indonesia

POOR infrastructure makes stable pricing difficult at the best of times in Indonesia, but the rural poor are increasingly pinning the blame for wild fluctuations in the price of staples on the policies and unmet promises of President Joko Widodo.

With South-east Asia's biggest economy growing at its slowest pace in six years, and half its 250 million population living on less than US$2 a day, price spikes on foods such as rice, sugar, beef and chillies can be devastating. "Farming is like gambling, because we never know the price," said 32-year old Rahmat, who farms chillies on the foothills surrounding Mount Salak in West Java, about 115 kilometres south of the capital, Jakarta.