Palm oil areas could help beef up meat supply

The 2009 World Forecasts of Fresh or Chilled Beef Export Supplies

04/08/2010 (The Jakarta Post) - Agriculture Minister Suswono has urged the Riau provincial administration to set aside at least 1 million hectares of oil palm plantation to support an integrated cattle breeding and oil palm (SISKA) program. 

"Riau actually has great potential to support the SISKA program, given that it has more than 2 million hectares of oil palm plantation area that has not been fully exploited to provide added value to farmers," Suswono said at the Agriculture and Livestock Integration Toward Food Reliance national seminar at the Sultan Syarif Kasim State Islamic University in Pekanbaru, Riau, on Monday. 

He said the vast oil palm plantation area was a viable location to breed cattle and said cattle breeding in an oil palm plantation could be a mean to raise farmers' income as they could profit from selling beef as well as biogas and fertilizer from cattle waste products and cut down on oil palm fertilizer costs. 

The SISKA program is also expected to help the government meet its national meat self-sufficiency target by 2014. 

Suswono estimated that the 1 million hectares of oil palm could be used to supply fodder for two million heads of cattle each year. 

"Apart from selling the cows, the farmers could also take advantage of the animals as a mode of transportation to carry their harvests," he said. 

Suswono added that if the program proved successful, it would be possible for Riau to eventually be able to supply the national meat demand, or even export beef to countries in the region. 

"Riau's bovine population would almost equal its human population. It is impossible for Riau residents to consume all that meat in a year, meaning there is an opportunity for Riau to market its beef," he said. 

"The provincial administration should take the lead in working with oil palm producers and plantation companies, both state and private. For optimal results, the SISKA program could be merged with the Food and Energy Reliance National Program that has been running for a while now," he added. 

 

Riau Livestock Agency head Askardiya Ribudana Patrianov said the provincial administration was currently studying the SISKA program at the PT Inti Indosawit Subur oil palm plantation, a subsidiary of PT Asian Agri Group, in Indragiri Hulu regency.