Overpopulation in Asia

The population, resident in the kabupaten Gunung Kidul, have to contend with a food-problem that has some special aspects. This food-problem differs slightly from the one confronting the population of the three other kabupatens which have the disposal of large sawah-fields. The disproportion between the number of inhabitants and the quantities of food crops which may be harvested from the avalilable arable ground, is serious in the whole area of the D.I. Jogjakarta, but in the Gunung Kidul and Kulon Progo this is so in a much higher degree. In calculating the quantities of caloric units available out of the average year-crops of the period 1953/1957 per head of the mid-year population of 1955 the data respecting the 4 kabupatens were as follows:

Table XI – 1
The amount of caloric units and vegetable protein available per person, per day, out of the average year-crops in the period 1953/1957. Calculated per person of the mid-year population in these kabupatens in the year 1955.

These figures were obtained from the products: rice, maize, tuberous plants and pulse. Regarding the crops of coco-nuts and vegetables there were no data available. These data obtained, for all four of the kabupatens point to the circumstance that the arable land of these kabupatens can no longer provide the present population with enough food for their wants, at least not with the present production-system, which is so much traditionally fixed. In this calculation the population of the town of Jogjakarta and the crops harvested on the fields of this town have not been considered.
In Judging these data it is important to know, that considerable quantities of foodstuffs from the above mentioned kabupaten are taken to market for sale in the town. Big quantities of cassave, rice and also pulse are often bought up in the kabupaten Gunung Kidul just after harvest time by dealers, and a.o. Offered for sale in the town of Jogjakarta. Therefore the figure found by calculation is for this kabupaten more favourable than in reality it is, as much concerning the amount of available calories as concerning the quantity of vegetable protein. The latter is reduced because of the export of considerable quantities of the pulse which contain much protein. In the kabupaten Gunung Kidul and also in the parts of the kabupaten Kulon Progo and Bantul a famine has become a regularly occurring phenomenon of the season. The appearance of famines in various degrees of gravity for many years occurs in these areas with bad arable lands and with almost quite absent possibilities of irrigating them.
The districts where famine occurs are indeed unfit for agriculture by the quality of the ground. Besides, these grounds have been seriously subject to erosion during the last decennia. The risks of failure of crops are therefore much greater in these districts than this is the case in the sawah-districts. The problems raised by those dry eroded grounds with their diminishing crops of foodstuffs and a steadily increasing population, which for their food supply are dependent upon them, as is the case in the D.I. Jogjakarta and also in many other districts of Java, may be clearly studied in the area of the kabupaten Gunung Kidul.

Agriculture notes.
The part of the southern Mountains lying in the region of the D.I. Jogjakarta is only a small part of this mountain ridge, which stretches East of Kali Opak to a length of 300 km along the Southcoast of the Island of Java as far as Kali Glilik. In the part lying in the D.I. Jogjakarta we distinguish: a northern mountaincomplex. (Baturagung range, Panggung massive), a lower central part, the Wonosari basin and the limestone mountains in the south, Gunung Sewu, “a Thousand Mountains” by name, which stretch along the Southcoast. The southern Mountains has a construction of volcanic material and consists of a number of strips stretching East-West, which going south are of a younger geological age.
The whole territory is unfit for agricultural use. Hardly a trace of the original forest is left. From the discoveries in the connection with the ancient fauna (Tapirus, Rhinoceros) it may be easily deducted that in former times here was a moist forest. The name of “Wonosari”, the capital of the kabupaten Gunung Kidul, means: fine forest.
In the western part of the Wonosari basin there still is some teak-forest, which however has been very much cut down during the time of the Japanese occupation.
The northern part of the mountains, Baturagung Range and Panggung Massive, consists of steep and rounded hills, the soil of which has been strongly eroded, so that in many places the rocky bottom has been brought to the surface. In the places where agriculture is still possible, in the wet season a mixed crop of cassave, maize and upland rice is harvested. In the Wonosari basin it is possible in some places to use the ground for “sawahs” dependent on rainfall, with small yields. The absence of coconut trees here also points to the bad water-situation.
The southern part of Gunung Kidul, the gunung Sewu (the Thousand mountains) is a limestone landscape. It consists of a great number of conical hillocks rising to a height of 50 m above their common basis. They have a limestone construction.
As this limestone dissolves easier in contact with water than other stone formation, this soil is porous. The rain-water is carried away by some underground little rivers. The upper layer of soil on these small hills has mostly been removed by erosion, and from agricultural point of view such “soils” are not really soil any more. In the vales the bottom is still in use for agrarian purposes. In some areas the erosion has so far made headway, that the material coming down from the hills no longer consists of soil, but of mother-material (grit, sand, stones) that is weathered insufficiently or not at all, so that agriculture in the vales there has become impossible. It is not only the factor of soil erosion that makes agriculture there so little worth while, also on the arable-land which is still little affected by erosion the results are bad. The district is a very low productive area. The region is unfit for irrigation and might be best used for forest-cultures. Gradually the crops in this area diminish. The principal food is the tuberous plant “ketella pohon”, cassave, (Manihot) Utilissima), which will still grow on these bad soils.
As the percentage of protein of these plants is very low, the popular food in this kabupaten consists principally of carbohydrates.
About the popular diet in this kabupaten an extensive research has been made in the years 1938/1939. by this research the insight in this problem has been much deepened and a survey of data that have become known through this investigation and those of special importance have been collected in the general view here below. They have been taken from the investigation-report: Gunung Kidul report 1941, which was published just before the Japanese occupation. For the study of the popular diet in a cassave-region the Institute of the Popular Nutrition let its choice fall on this kabupaten.
In the period of May 1, 1938 – April 30, 1939 a diet-investigation was made here in a number of test-families living in 6 ketjamatans. In 3 ketjamatans a testing area was chosen containing each 2 dukuhs, viz. respectively in Palijan, Nglipar and Pondjong. In 2 ketjamatans, viz. in Semanu and Tepus a testing-area was chosen, which contained 1 dukuh from each of the 2 ketjamatans, which however bordered on each other. In 1 ketjamatan 4 dukuhs were chosen as testing-area, viz. Ngawen. This choice was made in this way in order to have as much as possible the different regional diet-types that may be distinguished in this kabupaten represented in this research. In these dukuhs of the 5 testing-areas 99 test-families in total were chosen, who as much as possible agreed with the average of the region regarding: size of the family, landed property, assessment in land-revenue. All family-heads were farmers. In all 5 testing areas the gaplek (dried cassave) was the principal food, as was expected, and much less rice or maize. The most important results have been placed in table XI-2 and XI-3.

Table XI – 2

Results of diet-investigation in kabupaten Gunung Kidul in the period May 1, 1938 till April 30, 1939.
Expressed in grams, per head, per day Average day-diet, the slametans included.

Table XI – 3.
Principal foodstuffs consumed per head, per day in grams in the Gunung Kidul region during the period May 1, 1938 till April 30, 1938.

The amount of calories, which were gained per head/per day in the diet of this region, appeared to be too low. It varied from 1,120 cal. To 1,400 cal. Per head/per day in 4 of the 5 testing-areas. Only in the testing-area of Semanu/Tepus the amount of calories per head/per day was 1,668 cal. It appeared in analysing the data in detail, that there was a correlation between the calories- and the protein- supply.
Of the 10 testing-families with the lowest consumption of calories 8 proved to belong to the group with the lowest protein-consumption. From the main foodstuffs 84-89% of the total amount of the calories were derived, and more than half of all the consumed protein. The fresh cassave, which is mostly consumed roasted only during harvest time of the plants from July – October, was converted into gaplek. (viz. To 40% of the weight of the fresh cassave).
This cassave-diet brings with it, as a consequence of its scanty protein percentage, a low-protein diet. Gaplek contains 1.5 grams protein per 1,000 grams. It appeared from the investigation that in Gunung Kidul besides very little animal protein was consumed, viz. Verying from 1 – 4.6 grams of animal food (trassi, dried shrimps, fresh meat) per head/per day in the different testing-areas. As a rule the hens’ eggs, the chickens, and the meat of cows and goats are transported to the town of Jogjakarta and there put in the market. From the principal foodstuffs came 52-71% of the total amount of protein consumed, while the supplementary food, (especially pulse and its products) provide the other protein. However the total quantity of protein consumed, in grams per head/per day (including the slamatans) is very low and varied from 15.6 to 27.4 grams of vegetable protein. The low supply of protein therefore appeared to be the most serious deficiency shown by the diet in this region. The norm of the minimum requirement of protein of grown-ups, proposed by Gyorgy during the Princeton conference in 1955 (mentioned in Human Protein Requirements and their fulfilment in Practice W.H.O.-F.A.O. 1957, pag.116)was 0.5 grams of the biologically high-value animal protein from the cow-milk / per kg. body-weight. This would mean with a body-weight, found in adults in Gunung Kidul in 1938. viz.
body-weight of adult women 39.5 – 42 kg and
body-weight of adult men 44.5 – 47 kg,
that the consumed amounts of protein should be 0.3 – 0.6 grams of vegetable protein, mostly cassave-protein, per kg body-weight. However the quality of cassave-protein is not of the same nutritive value as the protein of cows’milk, because of the unprofitable distribution of the animo-acids, so that the quantities of cassave-proteins, necessary per day and per kg body-weight to cover the requirements, will certainly be higher than 0.5 grams per kg/per day, and in this way not even the minimum requirement of protein of the population could be provided for by the daily diet in this region in 1939. The conclusion to which this investigation led was, that not even the best thinkable supplementary food was sufficient to fill up the deficit in protein. There appeared to be differences in the different seasons in the total protein-consumption.
In all the testing-areas the lowest protein-consumption occurred in the period of September-December. The caloric value of the diet in this period from May 1, 1938 – April 30, 1939 did not show any distinct seasonal gradations.
The consumption of fat amounted to 11.2-20.4 gram per head/per day. The fat was particularly provided by coconuts viz. 50 – 83% of all the fat that appeared in the diet. Other foodstuffs containing fat and consumed in quantities worth mentioning in this region were evidently peanuts, maize and rice.
The provision of Vitamin-A appeared to be amply sufficient in the diet. This is a favourable circumstance, by which xerosis conjunctivae and xerophthalmia are seldom observed in this kabupaten. Of 1,259 children, who were examined during this investigation only 3 boys showed Bitôt spots. Xerosis conjuctivae still did appear in this district. But with low frequency. This in contrast with the rice-districts, the kabupatens Sleman, Bantul and the town of Jogjakarta, where a great many children are seen with xerosis conjunctivae, xerophthalmia and keratomalcia. The favourable vit.A provision in the diet of the population in Gunung Kidul was caused by their consumption of many vegetables. The vegetables supplied 96-99% of all the consumed vit. A in 4 out of the 5 testing regions. Only in the testing-region of Semanu/Tepus also maize supplied a share in the vit.A quantity that is worth mentioning, viz. 9%. the amount of vit.A in the diet was 2,000 – 3,500 I.U. On an average per head/per day, so that the norm of vit. A requirement, which has been accepted, viz. 800 I.U. per head/per day, was surpassed. Vit.A from animal protein was hardly consumed.
In the region where the caloric-consumption is low, many vegetables appeared to be eaten. It is very probable that this happens for want of better food, at any rate to reach a feeling of satiety. The quantity of vegetables (leaves of plants and young pulse), that is consumed, amounts to 36-63 grams a day/per head. (annual average). The consumption of vegetables proved highest in the months of January-April in 4 testing-areas. In the testing-area of Pondjong this was the case in the months of Sept. -December. It was especially Yardlong bean (Kantjang pandjang) leaves, cassave-leaves and Ind. Amaranth, (bajem, a kind of spinach) that were eaten. The high consumption of leave-vegetable was found in all age-groups.
The provision with Vit.B proved only in one testing-area sufficient, (165 U. vit. B 1 per head/per day) in the other 4 testing-areas it varied from 78 – 112 U. vit. B 1 per head/per day).
As norm for the requirement of Vit. B 1 was kept up: 10 I.U. Per 100 calories, that is per day ± 150 U. vit. B 1. The other B. vitamines and Vit. C., besides the minerals were in a sufficient amount present in the diet. The diet was for the greater part consumed out of the people’s own supply. Expressed in the money-value of the in 1938/1939 obtaining market prices and monetary units it proved that 60-66% of the diet was obtained from their own yield. The kabupaten Gunung Kidul is an isolated region and has only one good motor road, connecting this area with the other region of the D.I. Jogjakarta.
Inside the kabupaten too the connections between the different ketjamatans are scanty and difficult. They are practically exclusively footpaths that are difficult to walk in these mountains. These circumstances strongly promote a closed products-economy.
In 6 families 6 times one test at random was taken, (viz. With an interval of ± 6 weeks) to ascertain the distribution of the diet inside the family. It appeared that the little children got relatively more rice than the adult members of the family. The very small children got practically exclusively rice as principal food. At an increasing age relatively less rice was consumed and more gaplek. As rice contains 7 a 7.5 grams of protein per 100 grams and it is much richer in protein than gaplek this habit means that the young children receive a somewhat greater quantity of protein per kg. of bodyweight than the adults, who eat mainly gaplek. The data have been placed in table XI-4.

Table XI – 4.
The mutual proportion of the principal-foodstuffs consumption for the age-groups inside the family in the kabupaten Gunung Kidul. In percentage of the total consumption of principal-foodstuffs (rice, maize, gaplek).

This proportion differs from those found in diet investigations in rice-regions in Java. In the rice-regions it was found that the youngest age-group relatively always had the lowest protein supply. The slametans (=common feasts with a religious signification). That are mostly held at the occasion of a Moslim holy day, or sometimes in connection with agricultural happenings (planting, harvest) or at important events in the family (marriage, pregnancy, birth, death, circumcision) and during which the many guests often get a meal of an evidently better quality than they are accustomed to, have been very naturally also taken into account in the investigation. The slametans appeared to be of value for the diet because they constitute a rather big share of the total nourishment. The number of slametans given to the invited guests amounted to 5-8 per family per year. At these slametans rice is the mean food and the secondary dishes contain a.o. animal food and peanuts which are rich in protein.
An economic investigation was established in a number of 10 test-families in the ketjamatan Semanu, who were as much as possible conform in average to the regional average. This region abutted on the testing area chosen for the diet-research in this ketjamatan. The spent budget of these families looked like this:
Expenses in percentage of the total.
Food : 68.8%
Fuel and light : 13.2%
Clothing : 5.5%
House/Furniture : 0.4%
Luxuries : 7.3%
Miscellaneous (tax,
marriage expenses) : 4.8%

100.-%

About 69% of the total housekeeping expenses is spent for food. The income was almost exclusively obtained by selling the products coming from the compound of the house or from the tegalan (dry field) or from their stockbreeding (sale of eggs or hens).
In connection with the diet-research in the month of May 1939 a medical research of the population of this kabupaten was also instituted. The influence of this deficient gaplek nutrition on the health situation of the population was the subject of this medical research. Some important data, produced by this medical research of the population of the kabupaten Gunung Kidul are the following somato-metrical data: the bodyweight of the adult people in this region was compared with the bodyweight of adult people in a prosperous rice-area (ketjamatan of Pakem in Sleman) and it proved to be lower.
Gunung Kidul Pakem

• Average height of the men 157.5 cm 161.5 cm
• Average weight of the men 46 kg 50 kg
• Average height of the men 146.5 cm 150 cm
• Average weight of the men 40 kg 44 kg

the figures concerning gunung Kidul have been obtained from a research of 400 men and 456 women between 17 and 50 years old, among whom the persons from the test-families, in the months of may, that is 3 months after a good maize crops and 1 month after the rice harvest. The figures from Pakem were obtained from the Medical Inspector at Jogjakarta. Evidently the average bodyweights and bodylengths of all age groups between 17 and 51 years in Gunung Kidul were distinctly lower than the data from pakem. In judging the food situation of the population of Gunung Kidul, which was done by Dr. J.V. Klerks, 49% of the examined adult men and 31.5% of the examined adult women proved to be in a bad to moderate state of nutrition. These results were clearly more unfavourable than those of a similar investigation into the food situation of the population in a rice-region in Kediri. There the percentages were respectively 20% of the men and 23% of the women, who were in a bad to moderate nutritional situation. Also the children with a body-length of 85 to 140 cm appeared to have a lower average body-weight and a worse general nutritional condition as compared to the children examined in a rice-region in Kediri in the same way.
About the beginning of the 20th century in the kabupaten of Gunung Kidul rice was eaten the whole year round by the population. By the rapid growth of the population and the erosion started through the disafforestation, which diminished the fertility of the soil, whereas more and more grounds unfit for rice-cultivation were taken into exploitation, the population was gradually forced to plant cassave and to use it for food. In 1938 10 a 11 months of the year cassave (gaplek) was eaten and 1 or 2 months rice was eaten.
So the quantity and the quality of the main food would have declined in the course of 1900-1938. the older generation, older than 50 years, in their period of rapid growth (0-14 years) still had consumed rice all the year through, while the younger generation has not had this privilege. In a number of poor ketjamatans of this region, (Semin, Nglipar and Ngawen) an elaborate somatometric examination was made in a number of 879 men of the younger generation (25-35 years) and in a number of 901 men of the older generation (50-60 years). The average body-height of the older people appeared to be greater, while also the average leg-length in the older generation was greater (significant difference). The data obtained justified the conclusion that without doubt the younger generation no longer reach that body-height which the older generation had. Especially in the poor regions the disparities were very evident. It is very probable that the qualitative (and quantitative) deterioration of the nutrition is the most important cause of this. During the further medical investigation it was proved that ± 90% of the examined grown-up people had ancylostoma-eggs in the stools. Among the children the percentage of hookworm-carriers was 85-90%.
In the bodily examination of some thousands of people it was found that ± 5% of them showed oedema. Of the 75 oedema patients there were 22 children of 2-10 years, and 56 adults. Among the adults it was especially the age group over 40 years that were stricken, while with the men the oedema-frequency was 2 a 3 times as great as with the women. With 89% of the oedema patients there was also aneamia probably caused by the bad nutrition together with the hookworm-infection.
Thus was the situation of the nutrition during the period 1938-1941, in this kabupaten.
In the annual report of 1907 by Dr. H.J. Pruys concerning the hospital “Bethesda” at Jogjakarta we already found the note that many patients with oedema ans anaemia had been admitted to the hospital, especially in the months of January and February.
He spoke of an extraordinarily strong affluence of these patients in 1907. they evidently were patients of hunger-disease. It is likely that also in the first years of this century oedema already occurred in this region, when a crop-failure happened.
After the closing of the investigation in 1941, the Japanese occupation followed in the years 1942-1945, which also for this kabupaten had very serious consequences. The regions on the map of 1938 still marked down as grounds of the forest Service and especially occupied by djati-forests were changed in the time of the Japanese occupation through dis afforestation. The great war requirements of the Japanese made many djati-trees gradually disappear. The already serious erosion of the grounds now also extended over these newly dis afforested ground.
The yearly crops did not grow in quantity, judging from the data of which the Agrarian Service disposed, but they gradually diminished.
It is also a widely known experience of the farmers in this region, that the arable surface of their agricultural grounds gradually shrinks, because the erosion has continually made the stony bottom more visible.
On fields where in former times the upland rice (padi gogo) would grow, afterwards only maize was planted, but when this too yielded only small crops, many farmers changed to growing ketella (cassave).
The population strongly increased in numbers.
The data concerning the population-growth have been placed together in table XI-5.

Table XI – 5.
Number of inhabitants of the kabupaten Gunung Kidul in the period of 1920 – 1958

In this period of 38 years from 1920-1958 the population in this kabupaten doubled. The data of the village registration are not as dependable as the data of the census, so that the last figure should not be considered as exact up to 10,000 inhabitants.
This region had, according to the results of the 1930-census, a strongly agrarian character. Of the male professionals 90.5% were farmers. Of the female professionals 64% cultivated the soil. This development makes it very likely that the present average diet of the population in this district will be still worse again than that already deficient diet taken by the population according to the research in 1938-1939. the orientating diet-research performed in April 1955 in this region by Oey Lian gives much support to this assumption. In April 1955, during a diet-research of 64 school-children from this region, who were on an average 10 years old, Klerks found that they received a day-diet containing 1,006 calories and 9.8 grams protein (vegetable). The Vit. A percentage of the diet was 3,356 I.U.

The erosion of the agrarian fields has seriously increased. After every shower the rivulets are filled with red-brown streams of mud that take the washed away upper layer with them to the Indian Ocean.
The increasing population living around the life-minimum in this infertile region certainly is very vulnerable for failure of crops.
This was evident in the consequences which the failure of the cassave-crops had in 1957. the conditions under which the crops can miscarry are e.g.-a plague of rats especially a menace to the maize-crops and which recurs more or less yearly;

• a rainy season continuing too long with heavy rains in June and July by which the cassave sometimes partly deteriorates in the ground;
• a rainy season in which it rains too little.

The harvest of cassave in 1957 was only 38% of the average year-crops of the year 1953-1956. the planting time in this region coincides with the beginning of the rainy season in the months of October-November.

In the beginning of the rainy season the upland rice, the maize and the cassave are disseminated, pell-mell on the same fields. By much rain the chance of a good crop is greatest with rice and soya-beans.
By little rain the maize and cassave make better chances. As the period from sowing till harvesting is different for these various food-crops this gives the possibility to harvest different times of the year. After ± 3 months the maize is ripe and it is harvested in February. The then empty fields are used once more for the sowing of maize or may be for pulse, if this is possible by sufficient rainfall.
The rainy season lasts from 4 till 6 months. In March/April the rice is harvested which requires about 4 till 5 months for ripening, while in June / July there may be another small crop from the second maize-sowing. The first maize crops has viz. been harvested in Febr. Already. Generally after that only the cassave is still in the ground.
As this cassave remains in the ground for 8-9 months, this is harvested in July / August. When the cassave stays in the ground longer it will be bigger but the want of food does not allow of a longer time of waiting. In the period from August till the month of February in the next year therefore nothing can be harvested. So the ground remains fallow till October. Out of these agrarian conditions food-problems of quantitative and qualitative character result for the population in the period of Nov.-Dec.-Jan. In the period of Febr. till Sept. the quantity of food is greatest in this region. However also in these months patients with hunger disease are continually found and admitted for nursing in the hospital in wonosari as well as in the auxiliary-hospitals situated in the other ketjamatans of this kabupaten. However, after September the number of patients with hunger-disease considerably increases at the polyclinics and in the auxiliary-hospitals, to grow to a maximum in the months of Dec. and Jan. Just before the maize-harvest in Febr., when consequently this maize is not yet available as food and the cassave from the July-August crops has been almost or totally consumed, for many people in this region a period of food shortage occurs lasting for weeks or for months. This period of food shortage is called patjeklik. In this period the parings and scraps of the prepared cassave (called gogik), which were dried and kept, are looked up and consumed.
It is also in this period that the diet has the lowest percentage of protein. In the period after the maize crops in February and after the rice-crops in April, the population feeds on these food-crops, which contain 7-8 grams of protein per 100 gram. After July the cassave containing 1-1.5% of protein is the main food, so that up from July the diet has a low percentage of protein, while after the month of September it often has for many people too few caloric units besides. In a number of hunger-disease patients sometimes the quantity of consumed cassave (gaplek) was rather satisfactory, so that in these cases the low quantity of protein in the diet was the principal factor in the pathogenesis. In the months after September the population disposes of little money because, just before the maize crops, the money obtained from the sale of the preceding maize, rice and pulse crops has already been used up. A failure of the cassave crops in 1957 was for the kabupaten physician H.J.Nielen at Wonosari the inducement for a survey into hunger-disease in this kabupaten. At the height of the patjeklik period, namely in the period 14-28 January just before the maize harvest, the patients suspected of hunger-disease by the lurah were called together by him, and examined by the team of the doctor and his male nurses. The meeting-places were chosen by the tjamat in such a way, that the distance would hardly cause any difficulty in such a way, that the distance would hardly cause any difficulty for the patients. In this survey more than 11,400 persons were examined.
Among this group of persons there appeared to be 4,478 who showed clearly to have oedema. In the period when this survey took place, about a thousand patients with hunger-disease were treated in the 12 auxiliary hospitals and in the central hospital, so that the total number of registered patients with hunger-disease amounted to 5,478.
For the judgment of these observations the following considerations are of interest:

• The selection of the persons to be convoked rested with a layman, viz. the lurah of the village concerned.
• The phenomenon oedema is in this region a very well-known symptom with the population.
• The rather long distance over bad roads in this mountain-district to the place of examination means often a very great effort for an indolent, indifferent, tired hunger-patient, who frequently suffers from muscle-weakness.
• The effort made by these hungry patients by coming for this investigation was not rewarded with, for instance, distribution of food.
• Many people were busy with more vital affairs and prevented by these.
• Hunger-disease is not in all cases accompanied by oedema.
• A feeling of shame by the patients, that he has come to this state, will refrain a number of them from going for the examination.
• A number of patients is much too ill to come. During the research it happened that houses were shown to the team-members, where patients were lying down quite exhausted by starvation and already sub finam vitae.

These circumstances make it probable that many patients with hunger-disease did not report at the place of examination.
An estimate that in January 1958 more than 10,000 patients with hunger-disease were present in this region, we think very probable.
In the months of August and December of the year 1958 and in April 1959 this inquiry into the occurrence of hunger-disease in this kabupaten was repeated. The cassave-crops of the year 1958 had been rather successful. Using the same methodics as in January 1958, during these repeated surveys respectively 962, 883 and 425 patients with hunger-disease were registered. It was proved that also in the periods of the harvest (Aug. ‘58, April ‘59) patients with hunger-disease were found in this region.
Through the disproportion between the quantity and quality of the harvested food-crops and the number of people who are supposed to be fed with them, hunger-disease has become inevitable and a matter of course in this kabupaten.
The auxiliary hospitals, during the last years till their closing in 1959, accepted almost exclusively patients with hunger-disease for treatment. The age-distribution of the patients with hunger-disease appeared, according to the report made up by H.J.Nielen, as follows:

Table XI – 6

Procentual age-distribution of the patients suffering from hunger-disease and observed in a number of 4 surveys (according to H.J. Nielen)

From thses data it may be gathered that in the period in which the survey of Aug.’58 and April ‘59 fell, it was especially the age-group of 40 years and older in which most victims of the hunger-disease were counted. It is also precisely this age-group concerning which the prognosis of this disease is most unfavourable (Bok 1949). The farmers in this age-group have often divided up all their arable land.

Severe erosion in the region of Gunung Sewu. Ketilla growth is still possible in the valleys.

In all houses with stony fields, along the Wonosari-road naked mountain part on the background.

among their children and have been dependent upon those. After this age-group followed the one of 26-40 years and in the third place came the children of 1-10 years. However it may be possible that the lurah has in different places given less attention to summoning this age-group.
In this district malnutrition among the smaller children is very frequent, like in the other parts of the region D.I.Jogjakarta (Nielen, Bailey). Also during these surveys many small children were observed suffering from malnutrition. At the polyclinics too many malnutrition-patients came and still come for examination.
In the children’s ward of the hospital at Wonosari mulnutrition was the most important indication for admission. (Neilen). During some visits to this ward I could personally ascertain this fact. The children in this region, with such a diet deficient in protein, run a great risk of suffering from malnutrition. However this is seldom attended by xerophthalmia, as is the case in the rice-areas of the other kabupatens of the D.I. Jogjakarta.
The age-group who counted relatively the smallest number of victims, was the group of 11-25 years. In this age-group however nursing women appeared to take an important place. (Bailey 1959).
During the serious famine preceding the first survey (Jan. ‘58) it appeared that the victims were much more evenly distributed over the various age-groups. The explanation for this regular spreading is probably the seriousness of that famine.
In coping with these food-problems to bring a diet with sufficient protein and with sufficient caloric units within reach of all the inhabitants who are now living in this region and of the new generation which in future will be born and live here, the following reflections perhaps are of some importance.
For the improvement of the protein percentage in the diet the following may be considered:

• A change in the proportions of the different crops planted in this area. The planting of more rice and maize and less cassave. This however is possible only on a very limited scale. The quantity of cassave that can be harvested from a hectare is namely greater than the quantities of rice and maize that can be expected. Cassave grows also on bad agricultural soil and is easier to prepare than rice and maize, The dry cassave (gaplek) is well tenable. This plant also demands less care from the farmer than the other crops.
• The more frequent planting of Kratok (Phaseolus Lunatus) and Koro Benguk (Mucuna Pruriens). They are creepers which grow in the yards up against the trees and against the hedges between the premisses. The dry little beans of these leguminosae contain 20% protein. These vegetables may be harvested twice a year. The preparation of the beans to make food out of them requires some care because of the possible cyanic acid (HCN) percentage (v. Veen. 1941).
• Measures for the furtherance of milking the many goats already present in the district, so that this milk would become available for food. The expectation that this would amount to large quantities does not seem very great. Where there is only little food for man, there is also a shortage for the animals. From underfed goats and cows on cannot expect a great milk-production.

For the increase of crops, beside measures for soil-conversation, the use of artifical manure might be considered. This use of artificial fertilizers however has so little chance of succeeding because of the lack of purchasing power in this society of agricultural people. It is much too expensive for these small farming plots almost without any capital. The use of better qualities of seed for sowing tjantel and maize could only receive consideration by the use of artificial manure.
A prohibition of exportation for cassave is in force since 1959, so that the harvested cassave remains indeed available for the local consumption.

To check the rain-erosion there may be considered:

• Introducing insight among the farmers into the phenomenon of erosion, so that there be some chance that the measures be understood and that they give the necessary cooperation.
• The terracing may be executed with still more care and over greater areas.
• Cassave and peanut are rootcrops. This implies that these must be dug up to harvest them. After this harvesting the loose earth is easily washed away by the rain. The planting of the already barren fields, of the hills, and of the dams around the dry fields for fencing them in, by leguminosae as Krotok, Koro Benguk and Lamtoro (Leucaena Glanea) might reduce the erosion (bailey 1959).
• Preventing the goats and cows from extracting and nibbling up the young trees which promotes the erosion.

However, more than a syptomatic success these measures cannot have. At best it may be reached that the erosion is delayed and that the crops are kept up to the present mark. But then too there will not be enough food for the population. For a growing population as is the case at present, only an increasing food shortage may be anticipated, so that the famine everywhere present will be the principal regulator in the limitation of the population growth.
A similar situation will in the long run hardly tolerate a livable human existence, the people living from famine to famine.
The special feature of the situation in this kabupaten is, that the disproportion between number of people and agrarian productions is more serious than is the case for the whole island of Java.
It might be seen as a future expectation, if this entire development of Java is not influenced by the Javanese population and its government.
In how far industrialization, transmigration and agricultural improvement may be of importance, this will be considered in the following chapters for the island of Java; for the kabupaten Gunung Kidul the possibilities appear very small. For a possible industrialization almost every conditions is wanting there is no rail road, no electricity, no water, no fuel and no raw materials, while the manpower is underfed.
For transmigration there is little interest among the population. In the period 1950-1958 in total 4,993 persons transmigrated. For the greater part form the ketjamatan Karangmodjo and Patuk; 4,859 of them went to South Sumatera and the rest to Kalimantan. Birthregulation seems inescapable. With and increase of the population with 1.5 – 2% grows worse. A birth regulation, that leaves the population constant, can hardly bring amelioration. Only such a control of the number of births which would bring about a decrease of the population, would have any importance for the amelioration of the present living-conditions. The quantity of arable fields per farmer would grow, if further loss through erosion would be stopped, up from now. Another method of production will be able to give the same results with fewer farm-hands.
The reafforestation might be taken in hand, while now the many wood-cutters (men and women) try to get a living through the sale of fellings. The loss of forest goes on as long as poverty and hunger are so serious and as long as it is possible for a number of people to get a living out of the still existing woods by burning charcoal without being controlled.
The possibility to exploit this region on a sustained-yield basis and no longer to continue the present exploitation will only come within reach of the population with a rapid-decreasing population figure. At the same time the hopes of a livable human existence for the future population will become more substantial, when the tension of population versus survival will lessen