The Landbouwdienst — the Agricultural Service of the Netherlands Indies — was the body whose instruction Dr. C. E. Gomperts proposed to enlist in the campaign against xerophthalmie in Groot-Atjeh, by stimulating the cultivation of vitamin-A-rich crops in the villages.
The recommendation
The last of Gomperts’s five recommended measures for combating xerophthalmia and preventing blindness through keratomalacie was that local agriculture — in particular the erfbouw (yard cultivation) of vitamin-A-rich crops — “zal moeten worden gestimuleerd met voorlichting van den landbouwdienst,” should be stimulated with instruction from the Agricultural Service.
The crops named
Gomperts listed the crops to be encouraged: papaja, peper, bajem (amaranth), cassave singkong, gambas, gendjer, kangkoeng, katjang pandjang (long bean), katoek, ketimoen (cucumber), melindjo, oebi, prei (leek), roode kool (red cabbage), tales merah, boea-nona, djeroek garoet, mangga, zuurzak (soursop) and tomaten.
The recommendation followed from his finding that the basic food of the Atjehnese kampong population consisted of rice, and that the supplementing of this basic food with vegetables and meat was very sparse, so that the population suffered a chronic shortage of vitamin A.
See Also
Source
Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937 (“Orienting Ophthalmological Survey among the Atjehnese Population of Groot-Atjeh during 1937”), by Dr. C. E. Gomperts, offprint from the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië, Afl. 19, Deel 80 (1940), pp. 1191-1238 (Batavia-Centrum: G. Kolff & Co.). Received by the editors 25 October 1939. Offprint DLP-157, Bibliotheek KITLV.