Bruce Gale Straits Times 6 May 11;
INDONESIA'S Minister for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Fadel Muhammad has big plans. He wants to create a 'blue revolution' in Indonesia that will make the country the world's largest fish producer by 2014. That's a tall order. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, China produced 47.5 million tonnes of fish in 2008, while India produced about 7.6 million tonnes. The comparative figure for Indonesia was just 6.7 million tonnes.
The term 'blue revolution' refers to an anticipated leap in aquatic productivity that many hope will rival the green revolution. The latter involved a surge in grain yields across Asia in the 1950s and 1960s that supported the rising populations of that era. Higher fish production in Indonesia now would certainly help boost food supplies at a time when climate change has contributed to shortages. But is the surge in productivity Mr Fadel is planning really possible?
The minister's optimism is based at least partly on the fact that Indonesia is a sprawling archipelago. 'Wherever you have water, you have fish, and two-thirds of our country is water,' he told the Wall Street Journal last month.
But there is little consensus on just how much potential remains to be exploited. According to Mr Fadel's own ministry, of the 11 fishing regions in the country, only the Arafura Sea (between Australia and New Guinea) remains underexploited. The most overfished areas include the North Java Sea, the Malacca Strait and the East Kalimantan Sea. Inevitably, this has had an impact on fishermen's incomes.
Late last year, the minister admitted as much, noting that fishermen along the north coast of Java earn an average of only 800,000 rupiah (S$115) a month. This is only half what their counterparts in Gorontalo province on Sulawesi island get.
Even so, there are those who believe that, with the right infrastructure in place, higher production levels are possible. According to Mr Purwito Martosubroto, the chairman of Indonesia's Tuna Commission, Indonesia's ability to become one of the world's leading tuna producers has been hampered by insufficient investment.
He points out that not only do the country's waters provide an ideal habitat for tuna due to their high salinity levels, but Indonesia is also close to Japan - the world's main tuna market. But 'tuna products cannot be shipped directly to Japan because of transportation problems'.
Illegal fishing by foreign fishing fleets is yet another longstanding issue limiting Indonesian fish production. Unfortunately, it is not something the fisheries ministry can do very much about. Officials in Jakarta estimate that the country loses around 30 trillion rupiah a year as a result of fish poaching. But despite efforts by the Indonesian navy, the problem remains.
Mr Fadel's main hope for an increase in fish production probably lies in aquaculture. Speaking to the media in January, the minister said that the government intended to focus its attention on 41 'minapolitan' (fish cities) across the country, 24 of which would concentrate on fish farming. One of these is in the Kampar district on the western island of Sumatra. The district's Koto Panjang Lake already has more than 2,000 floating fish cages where farmers raise millions of tilapia, carp, and catfish.
In an attempt to double national output, the ministry says it intends to send thousands of fishing experts to train local fish farmers across the country in how to get their products to market and deal with various diseases. The latter is particularly important. Industry sources say that many fish produced on Asian farms contain dangerous toxins and antibiotics, the result of treating fish kept in dirty water in overcrowded conditions. In Kampar, fisheries officials have responded by setting up a testing facility with new equipment from Europe to diagnose fish illnesses and evaluate water quality.
But not all problems can be handled by the fisheries ministry. One example is the traffic jams along the edge of the Koto Panjang Lake as trucks arrive to pick up the fish.
The ministry is also trying to promote the fish processing industry. Last August, Mr Fadel designated the fishing port of Tual in Maluku as an 'integrated fishery city', with the expectation of it developing cold storage facilities and related industries.
The waters around Maluku are considered promising for fishing, with large populations of squid, lobster, shrimp and other fish. As in Kampar, however, infrastructure remains an important constraint. As Deputy Industry Minister Alex Retraubun has pointed out: 'If power blackouts happen repeatedly in Ambon (the provincial capital), how can the fish-processing industry develop?'
It was a good point. The success of Mr Fadel's programme is heavily dependent upon the ability of other ministries and government departments to resolve a wide range of longstanding national weaknesses. The blue revolution may just have to wait.
