Woeful climate threatens nation's husbandry
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post 15 Jul 10;
Unpredictable changes in world climate and the global energy crisis have affected the production of livestock, according to an expert.
"We used to have a year of half rain and half sunshine. Farmers had no difficulties in poultry provision," Iman Hernawan, a poultry nutritionist from Padjadjaran University, said in Bandung on Wednesday.
He said the current unpredictable climate had been adverse to the husbandry, in regard to productivity and quality, over the past two years.
Indonesian husbandry, which is only a sub-tier of the agriculture industry, according to Iman, will find it increasingly difficult to operate because of the absence of mechanisms to provide feed.
The world energy crisis, he added, exacerbated the condition with corn and soybean producing countries reducing exports of the crops, often used for feed, opting instead to convert the commodity into bio-ethanol.
"Such conditions have caused a stagnation in the growth of Indonesia's cattle population," Iman said.
Data shows that the beef cattle population in Indonesia experienced a rise from 11.5 million in 2007 to 12.2 million in 2008 before stagnating to 12.6 million in 2009. East Java has the largest stock of cattle with 3.4 million.
The population of dairy cattle is also said to have experienced near stagnation with only a 6.5 percent rise from 457,000 in 2008 to 487,000 in 2009.
Jajang Sumarno said the difficulties in breeding cattle related to a lack of available feed, adding he had to slash the amount of grass feed because of shrinking grasslands.
