Jakarta  - Poverty-triggered malnutrition has killed at least 21 children this year and more than 100 others were hospitalized in an eastern Indonesian province, a local media report said Thursday.

East Nusa Tenggara province's health authorities feared the number of malnutrition cases would rise further in the coming months due to the harvest failure, combined with a limited budget allocation for Indonesia's least-developed province.

"Poverty is the main cause of malnutrition," said Taopan, head of food affairs at East Nusa Tenggara's provincial health office.

"A lack of staple foods forces parents to feed their children food with no nutrition value," The Jakarta Post quoted Taopan as saying. "Because of the poor diet, children are susceptible to complications from various diseases."

Taopan, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said seven of the 21 were from the provincial capital of Kupang, while the others came from several other districts in the province.

A total of 512,400 malnourished toddlers were recorded in the province during the past six months this year, he said, adding that most are undergoing medical treatment at nutrition rehabilitation centres.

"Currently, 112 toddlers are undergoing medical treatment for complications from malnutrition at hospitals in several regencies," Taopan said.

The floods and landslides that ravaged farmland during the rainy season between September 2007 and February 2008 sparked several food crisis in the province, he said.

Head of the province's food resilience office, Petrus Langoday, said a food crisis was threatening the province with many regencies suffering harvest failures due to flooding and droughts in the past six months. (dpa)