IPB Academic: Increasing Local Cattle Productivity Needs to Be Accelerated

The domestic population of beef cattle is insufficient to meet the national demand for meat, particularly in major cities. An academic from Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) University assesses that increasing the productivity of local cattle needs to be accelerated to reduce Indonesia’s dependence on cattle imports, especially from Australia. Professor Ronny Rachman Noor, a professor at the Faculty of Animal Science, IPB University, stated in Bogor Regency, West Java, on Thursday that domestic beef production to date has not been able to meet national needs, particularly in major cities with high consumption levels. “The domestic population of beef cattle is not yet sufficient to meet national meat needs, especially in major cities,” he said. He explained that the productivity of local cattle is still relatively low compared to imported cattle such as Brahman Cross from Australia, which have faster growth and are more suitable for fattening (feedlot). This situation is exacerbated by uneven production distribution, while demand is concentrated in urban areas such as Jakarta, Surabaya, and Medan. On the other hand, beef demand continues to increase along with population growth and the middle class. Needs from the food industry, hotels, restaurants, and catering sectors also drive the need for stable supplies throughout the year. According to Prof Ronny, the imbalance between production and demand has led the government to still rely on live cattle imports to maintain domestic meat supply availability. In addition, developing fattening systems based on local feed such as corn, cassava, and agricultural waste is also seen as able to reduce production costs while increasing the efficiency of domestic livestock farming. “Efforts to reduce this dependence require long-term planning, not instant actions,” he said. He added that diversifying import sources as well as increasing policy support for local farmers also needs to be done so that domestic production can grow more optimally without disrupting price stability in the market.