Coming to a plate near you:T-bone Lombok

(News Terupdate) - Could Indonesia achieve food self-sufficiency within four years? The government is certainly hoping so, having allocated Rp 18 trillion (US$1.93 billion) to achieve this goal.

Indonesia's food resilience programs are aiming at meeting self sufficiency in the domestic supply of soybean, corn, sugar and beef, the last being one of Australia's and New Zealand's main exports to Indonesia.

Ten percent of this budget, or around Rp 2 trillion, has been earmarked to improve beef production, with Lombok and Sumbawa destined to become the islands of one million cows by 2014.

The cattle counters reckon they're already halfway there. However, there are huge fences to jump if the goal is to be reached, as Mataram University academic Sudirman readily admitted.

"First we have to make sure all farmers have enough to eat," he said. "Otherwise they'll be saying to us: *You ask us not to sell our cows so numbers can increase. But do you want us to die because we have no money?'

"There's a culture of poverty in the province of West Nusa Tenggara *NTB* and we have to change the people's mindset. That's going to be a really big job."

There are many challenges indeed, starting with prevailing conservative views and farmer mistrust.

Indonesian rural folk took a beating during the Soeharto era's Green Revolution. Then heavy-handed bureaucrats forced farmers to abandon traditional practices, grow new crops and soak these with costly chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Now the rule of the gun has passed, farmers are going back to their old ways.

"We've learned the lesson," said rural sociologist Rosiady Sayuti. "Change has to be implemented carefully and slowly. We think the land can eventually support 1.5 million cattle and hope this will boost farmers' incomes by 50 percent."

But this figure is still low. There are 340,000 farmers in NTB earning less than Rp 1 million a month.

To help the 4.5 million people in Lombok and adjacent Sumbawa adjust to sharing their tiny islands with so many belching bovines, the local government sent seven experts to garner tips in New Zealand, a world leader in efficient farming.

The delegation, led by Sayuti, head of the NTB planning board, covered disciplines as diverse as veterinary science, agriculture, politics, administration and law.

Why law? "Because adat *traditional community law* still applies in rural areas and must be considered," said Galang Asmara, the dean of Mataram University's School of Law.

"For example, adat prevents the sale of animals under two years old and has to be factored in when determining ownership of cattle and responsibilities in husbandry."

Not all know-how from lush and temperate NZ can be easily transferred to the NTB, a tropical zone with limited rainfall and different animal diseases.

The South Pacific islands are home to 5 million beef cattle and 4.5 million dairy cows - and half a million fewer people than in NTB. Some Indonesians are already working on NZ farms and expect to take Kiwi skills back to their homeland.

Governor Zainul Majdi allocated Rp 10 billion in 2009 and Rp 15 billion in 2010 toward the million moos plan, with most of the funding going toward farmer subsidies. Australia is bringing technical expertise to the table as well.

Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu recently stated that under the free trade agreements between ASEAN and Australia and New Zealand, the two countries would provide Indonesia with capacity building projects to help boost Indonesia's beef and dairy production in return for free entry of their beef and dairy products at zero tariff by 2020.

Traditionally, farmers in Lombok keep three to five cows in stalls known as kandang. Local authorities want farmers to form cooperatives with 40 or 50 animals before giving them a lusty young Bali, Brangus or Simmental bull with good genes to boost herd quality.

Artificial insemination using semen from top bulls known to be efficient converters of grass into meat is also being used. Controlled mating is an important factor in improving management.

In Sumbawa, which is three times larger than Lombok, mini ranches may be organized with the cattle grazing in paddocks. New high-value crops are being planned to feed the cows.

Till now, they've been chomping low-protein native grasses, usually cut and carted by their carers.

To keep crops thriving through the dry months irrigation projects are being considered, tapping underground water reserves. Big dollars will be required. Investors are being wooed.

With high yielding crops and new land opened to the plough, the days of buffalo power will be numbered. So tractors will be needed, beyond the financial reach of individuals. Hence the importance of cooperatives where resources and equipment can be shared.

Vets are in short supply - with only 150 to cover the two islands. Unless more can be recruited, they'll be run ragged, confusing snouts with rumps.

And the more the New Zealand delegation talks about the issues encountered, the less sufficient the Rp 10 billion budget looks.

Lombok has the exclusive right to export cows to other provinces - a trade first started in 1831. The aim is for NTB to become the nation's quality livestock bank, helping meet Indonesia's growing hunger for beef.

Last October, Lombok held a "calf harvest" to show off its animals and rustle up interest in the ambitious cow-led recovery program.

Inevitably a development slogan has been coined - one cow, one calf, one year. Brain curdling tables and targets, graphs and strategies have been devised to educate locals.

There's another disparity to consider: NZ farmers are the country's elite with political clout.

Well-established farms generate huge wealth. But farmers in Indonesia are way down the status ladder. If the NTB plan is to get legs, it will need smart young hands-on people to understand the possibilities and convert power-point presentations into wells and pumps, fences and fertile fields.

Governor Zainul used the "calf harvest" to prod another message. Mataram mall cowboys hanging around the city at night hoping to lasso a lovely had better head back to the land and a halal (allowed) occupation.

"Government policy is to encourage young people to undertake further education and upgrade their knowledge of farming and the new techniques," said Sayuti.

"We have to build awareness that farming is an essential and valuable profession for the nation . It should be a job done with pride and attract respect.

"You can be an optimist or a pessimist. I'm the former," added Sayuti.

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