A MILLION MOOS FOR LOMBOK

Coming to a plate near you: T-bone Lombok Duncan Graham

Could Indonesia achieve food self-sufficiency within four years? That’s the government’s goal with Rp 18 trillion (US$1.93 billion) allocated.

Ten per cent of the budget has been earmarked to improve beef production, with Lombok and Sumbawa destined to become the islands of one million cows by 2014. Duncan Graham reports on this slice of the ‘food resilience’ program:

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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 Dr Sudirman readily admitted.

“First we have to make sure that 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 difficulties.”

Indeed. If all were to be listed this story would spill onto another page, so let’s highlight just a couple - country conservatism and farmer mistrust.

Indonesian rural folk got badly burned 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 they’re going back to the old ways.

“We’ve learned the lesson,” said rural sociologist Dr Rosiady Sayuti. “Change has to be done carefully and slowly. We think the land can eventually support 1.5 million cattle and hope this will boost farm incomes by 50 per cent.”

Sounds worthy, but the base is low. There are 340,000 farmers in NTB. Their average income is less than Rp 1 million (US $110) 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 Dr 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 Professor Galang Asmara, Dean of Mataram University’s Faculty of Law. “For example, adat prevents the sale of animals under two years old and is involved in 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 unusual animal diseases.

In the South Pacific islands there are five 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 initiated the million moos plan in 2008. It has a Rp 10 billion (US $1.1 million) budget last year and a Rp 15 billion (US $1.6 million) allocation this year. Most of this money is going on subsidies to farmers. Technical aid is being given by Australia.

Traditionally farmers in Lombok have three to five cows kept in stalls known as kandang. The bureaucrats want farmers to form cooperatives with 40 or 50 animals. Then they’ll be given 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 bigger than Lombok, mini ranches may be organised 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 – only 150. Unless more can be recruited they’ll be run ragged, confusing snouts with rumps.

The more the delegation talked to The Jakarta Post in the NZ capital Wellington about the issues they’re encountering, the more the adequacy of the Rp 10 billion budget diminished.

Lombok has the exclusive right to export cows to other provinces – a trade first started in 1831. The idea is that NTB can 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 the locals.

There’s another disparity: NZ farmers are the country’s elite with political clout. Well-established farms generate huge wealth. But in Indonesia farmers 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 should be heading back to the land and a halal (allowed) occupation.

But how are they going to keep them down on the farm after they’ve seen Kuta? Indonesians who get their hands dirty scratching for cash don’t score in the social hierarchy. Better keep fingers clean, find a government job with uniform and pension and be respected by neighbors.

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

(Picture above NZ agriculture is intensive: Muhamad Ansori (left) and Arik Asmedi, both from Blitar, East Java, milk hundreds of cows every day in NZ. )

(First published in The Jakarta Post 23 February 2010)

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AI IS NO BULL IN MALANG

Herliantien

NO GENDER ISSUES IN SEMEN CENTER © Duncan Graham 2007

The official all-male Saudi delegation was more than a mite surprised. They knew that Indonesian women are allowed to drive cars and might even be found in offices working close to unrelated men – though undoubtedly in inferior positions.

But to discover in East Java a feisty Muslim woman minus headscarf as head of a branch of a national government department was a bit more disturbing. Particular when the business conversation turned to issues of testicle size, ejaculation rates and sperm count.

For Dr Herliantien is the only woman in Indonesia running a livestock artificial insemination center – and when you're dealing with potentially embarrassing issues there's just one way to behave – direct and matter-of-fact.

She's also a lot of fun, though it's clear that behind the laugh lines are the scars of some tough times on her road to the top.

"I didn't experience discrimination while studying veterinary science at Surabaya's Airlangga University, though there were only seven women and 42 men," she said. "The difficulties came after graduation.

"I had a staff problem at one time so I challenged the man to compete against me. If he could do the job better then he was welcome to it. He backed down."

Not surprisingly, for although this public servant is no Madam Lash she's also no cipher. Unlike some bureaucrats she didn't get her job by coming from the boss's village or having a dad in the military.

"I came from a poor family in Surabaya, one of eight children," she said. "My parents were determined we should have a good education – for them this was the number one issue.

"My mother was a strong woman who'd had minimal schooling. Yet she confronted the local Catholic schools and successfully pleaded with them to enroll me despite having no money."

Clearly the policy paid; all eight kids have become tertiary educated professionals. Herliantien is the only vet, a discipline she chose because her father was involved in selling animal feed.

The chance to work for a private company where she could earn a mint was turned down, because it meant living in a dormitory and separation from her husband, sculptor Djoni Basri.

So instead she joined the government and for the first few years had to walk or hitch rides to work at a farm on the slopes of Mount Arjuno, north west of Malang in East Java. The couple didn't even have enough money for a motorbike.

At the time livestock husbandry was hardly taken seriously. The story goes that president Soeharto had a ranch and got interested in cattle breeding. He decided that artificial insemination (AI) was the way to lift the quality of the nation's herd, and suddenly the cash tap was turned on.

Helped with grants and loans from the Japanese, a purpose-built facility was created on a beautiful 67-hectare site seven kilometers outside the ancient city (now the village) of Singosari. The center's slogan: One drop of semen – One million hopes.

Herliantien studied in Japan, learned English, worked in the laboratory, became its head and four years ago while still in her 40s took over the whole complex.

This now houses 134 bulls and bucks, many that she's selected and imported from Australia. All have names. Hygiene and health care are critical issues, making the center a five-star hotel for celebrity studs with massage and pedicures on the house. Plus free sex.

Twice a week Dandy, Missy, Rozzy and their mates are led to a dummy cow draped with a hide and sprayed with the odor of oestrus.

With a minimum of foreplay and indifferent to the feelings of his mechanical mate he mounts and enters an artificial vagina made of wrinkled rubber and pre-warmed for maximum pleasure.

His ejaculate is trapped in a test tube, passed into the lab and after checking for sperm quality is diluted and frozen in thin glass tubes known as straws. These are preserved at low temperature in liquid nitrogen, then sent to farmers around the province for use by trained inseminators. One ejaculate can be used to serve up to 300 cows.

This means that a bland old bovine with no redeeming features can carry the offspring of a mighty broad-shouldered bull whose mum may have been a top Aussie milk machine, and his dad the sire of splendid vealers Down Under. Genetics rules, right?

The AI system has been a huge benefit to Indonesian farming. The Singosari center (one of nine in the nation) has been so successful that it has won numerous awards and international accreditation.

It's the showplace of choice when presidents and other heavyweights want to display Indonesian innovation and the ability of government agencies to exceed targets and meet overseas standards. It also has a clever marketing and promotion section producing, among other things, school materials encouraging kids to drink milk and eat meat.

The center is exporting semen and aggressively hunting for new markets. It sells fish sperm (it would take another story to explain how this works) and has pioneered a program offering farmers a choice of progeny. The technique used is a commercial secret.

What would you like in your stable – a red calf or a black and white cutie? Male or female? One that will go to the butcher – or the dairy?

A quarter of the 78 staff are female, and not all are wearing white coats in the air-conditioned lab and offices. Herliantien urges young women to take on any task, but it seems it's the blokes who have the hang-ups.

Why aren't women working in the bull barn? "Because the bulls are too strong," said an otherwise progressive male supervisor, a little sheepishly. So are there men on the staff like Bali bodybuilder Ade Rai so powerful they can stop a determined 750 kilogram bull with the scent of heifer on heat up his nostrils? "Well, no, but …"

"Women should not be deterred from getting work in animal husbandry," said Herliantien, 51. "It's quite wrong to think we can't work with animals and outside. It's a very satisfying job.

"Issues of complexion and dirt no longer apply. There are cosmetics and sunscreens to stop our skin turning black and protective clothing like overalls to keep you clean.

"This is not a female take-over. We need to work cooperatively with men, not in competition.

"Using money we've earned through exporting semen we run an incentive scheme paying bonuses, and a study program sending employees around the country and overseas.

"I urge my staff to use every opportunity to better their education and continue sending their children to school. We need to think ahead, to understand what others are doing.

"Even though our budget is inadequate we've been able to do so many things because we're committed. We've been able to adapt. We don't get lazy.

"We'll create a new breed of beef cattle - the Indonesian Red. It might take 25 years, but we'll do it. I want to show it can be done. Our dream will come true."

(First published in The Jakarta Post 5 February 07)
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