BPPT Develops Cattle Breeding in Oil Palm Plantations

JAKARTA- The Indonesian Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) together with Indonesia-Australia Partnership on Food Security in the Red Meat and Cattle Sector (the Partnership) initiated a conference to discuss cattle breeding program in oil palm plantations. The Integrated Cattle & Oil Palm Production (ICOP) Conference 2019 which was held in Jakarta (23/10/2019) provided an interactive forum to discuss the opportunities and challenges around the cattle and oil palm integration, and to encourage further collaboration and investment in promoting profitable cattle and oil-palm integration. “The conference is aimed to feature research conducted by BPPT on cow breeding program in a number of oil palm plantations in Pelalawan, Riau, Indonesia,` Hammam Riza, Chairman of BPPT, said at JS Luwansa Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday (23/10/2019). He said, Indonesia imported around 40% of its domestic beef demand. Breeding cows in palm oil plantations is expected to increase local beef production and lower its dependency on imported products. “The biggest challenge for increasing cattle population in Indonesia is how to increase investment which is currently very low. People tend to make assumptions that breeding cows is a high-cost effort and less profitable,” Hammam added. At the same event, Wisnu Soedibjo, Deputy Chairman for Partnership of the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) said that a pilot project for cattle and oil palm integration has been done since 2016. “One potential way is to breed cattle in available lands, including in oil palm plantations that have the potential to provide alternative sources of green feed for livestock,` Wisnu said. (Source: Gatra.com)