Supporting Indonesia’s commercial-scale beef cattle breeding industry
In Partnership with Australia, BPPT Assess Cattle Program in Oil Palm Plantation
The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) is partnering with Coffey International Development Pty Ltd as managing contractor for the Indonesia-Australia Commercial Cattle Breeding Program (IACCB) to review the integrated oil palm and cattle production program in a number of oil palm plantations.
Bisnis Indonesia, 27 April 2018 http://industri.bisnis.com/read/20180427/99/789130/gandeng-australia-bppt-kaji-progam-sapi-di-kebun-sawit
BPPT's Agro-Industry and Biotechnology (TAB) division, with Coffey International Development, as managing contractor for the Indonesia-Australia Commercial Cattle Breeding Program (IACCB), signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to conduct an assessment of cattle breeding program in a number of oil palm plantations in Indonesia.
The TAB Deputy of BPPT Soni Solistia Wirawan said the signing of the agreement aims to integrate research on cow breeding on plantations with the palm oil productivity and reducing negative impact of disease spread on oil palm.
According to him, there has never been any study on the impact of cattle breeding on oil palm plantations.
"It may not be a problem for one cattle, but in large quantities and in form of farm, we need to find out, through this partnership that will last for 1 year," he said in an official statement on Thursday (04/26/2010).
Soni hopes that the partnership will provide a recommendation of cattle breeding system within the palm oil plantation and the impact of the integration of cattle and oil palm on the productivity and the spread of oil palm disease.
Director of the Center for Agricultural Production Technology BPPT Arief Arianto said there should be a study to investigate whether the presence of cattle in oil palm plantations will support the productivity or the opposite. The results of the study could certainly be a positive recommendation to answer the commercial issue of cattle grazing in oil palm plantations.
He added that the integration of cattle breeding with palm oil plantations has been done since 2014 in order to support national food security on red meat through the increase of cattle population. "Oil palm plantations have the potential to provide alternative sources of green feed for livestock through the utilization of palm fronds, oil palm leaves and forage under palm trees," he said.