Indonesia is already Self-Sufficient in Meat
Referring to the blue print of meat self-sufficiency program of 2014, Indonesia has actually become self-sufficient in the year 2012 because, based on the livestock census conducted last June, the population of cattle and buffalo in 2012 will have reached 15.6 million heads.
This was disclosed in IPB Coffee Morning on Wednesday (27/7) in Bogor by Professor of Animal Breeding and Genetics Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), who is also chairman of the Indonesian Association of Animal Scientist, Professor Muladno. According to him, meat self-sufficiency is defined by the government as the adequacy of meat satisfied by the local livestock as much as 90 % and the remaining import of10 %.
Meanwhile, the blue blueprint of meat self-sufficiency program in 2014 mentions that beef self-sufficiency can be achieved if in 2014 the supply of meat from local farmers amounts to 420.3 thousand tons; 15.4 thousand tons of meat from imported cows; and 31.2 thousand tons of imported frozen meat. The availability of 90 % local meat will be reached if there are 14.4 million cattle in 2014.
"So far both government and private sectors have always argued that we need to import because local livestock production can not meet the national need of meat. In fact, when referring to the government programs and the results of the census it is already evident that we can be self-sufficient in meat," he said.
With such current conditions, Muladno further said, there should be no more excuses for the government to delay the control of imported cattle and frozen meat from other countries. "Imports of frozen meat and calves should be controlled in order to keep prices stable," he added.
In Muladno’s observation, the imported meat and cattle are still more than 10 %. The worst condition was in 2009 when the government had to import up to over one million tons of meat, whereas the import quota was only 700 tons.
According to Muladno, imported cattle and meat should be well planned and only to meet specific market segments, such as hotels and restaurants. "Is it not easy to calculate how many hotels and restaurants so we can determine the need for imported meat clearly? Do not let the imported meat enter the traditional markets, which will ‘kill’ the local ranchers, including local meat," said Muladno.
Muladno further said, the great number of cattle and buffalo populations is in fact spread across all regions in Indonesia. As a result, the productivity is still not tapped optimally. This also causes a low competitiveness of local cattle because of its scattered location throughout the region, including the islands in Indonesia.
In addition, the arrangement of local cattle breeding also needs a systematic and long-term implementation to improve the quality of local cattle. "The orientation of the government should change, increasing not only the population but also the quality," he said.
Muladno views that so far the government policy has been in the wrong direction because it is based on inaccurate justification. The breeding that is still focused on the quantity or the number of kilograms of beef has caused local cattle productivity not to happen. Furthermore, it is not yet emphasized on the improvement of genetic quality.
Muladno illustrated that the government has not looked at the breeding of Bali cattle, which is actually a local cow of Indonesia. A number of artificial inseminations carried out by the government through the breeding agents are still preoccupied with the cross breeding with superior cattle from foreign areas, such as metal and limousine cattle from Australia. "If the government does not take care of Bali cattle breeding, we fear that other countries will work on it later. The local cattle is what we have," said Muladno. If this condition continues unchecked, it will threaten the existence of our local cattle. "Later our local beef cattle will disappear; all being replaced by cross-bred cattle," added Muladno. (Mtd)
