The excessive use of antibiotic and growth promoter (AGP) is a challenge for the world of livestock industry in Indonesia. AGP stimulates bacterial and residual resistance stored in livestock products (meat, milk, eggs) are harmful to human health because they cause pathogenic bacterial resistance. Food and Agriculture Organization notes that the use of antibiotics in agriculture reaches 63,000-240,000 tons every year.
“The challenge is getting harder with the low purchasing power of Indonesian people towards livestock products. “Among the 260 million of Indonesians, only 30 million people have high purchasing power,” said the Dean of the Faculty of Animal Sciences UGM, Prof. Dr. Ir. Ali Agus, DAA., DEA., IPU when delivering a presentation in the in-class training of Work-Based Academy on Monday (1/10) at Faculty of Animal Science UGM.
Ali added that Indonesia’s topography of 17,000 islands also made it difficult for the logistics and distribution process. Demand for halal food is also a challenge, given that 87% of Indonesia’s population is Muslim.
“The challenge is becoming increasingly severe with a milk consumption target of 19.5 liters/ capita and meat consumption of 3.5 kg/capita in 2025. The increase in milk and meat consumption is needed because the consumption of animal protein is positively correlated to the quality of human resources,” Ali explained.
Development of the dairy industry also requires cooperation between farmers, business owners, and the government. “There are several ways to increase milk production in Indonesia, including milk from breeders that must meet the standards of processing, increase the competence of farmers, revitalizing milk cooperatives, increasing integration among stakeholders, and so on,” Ali said.
“Indonesia has various local livestock such as chickens, ducks, sheep, goats and cows that can be developed. In fact, livestock products are an increasing contributor to the agricultural sector, “Ali said. The growth of livestock products per year (2010-2014) is 4.6%, this figure is greater than the contribution of agricultural products as a whole which only reached 3.5% in the same period.
However, farms that are managed domestically and simply will not be able to meet national needs due to low productivity. According to Ali, approaches that can be done in the future are adaptive farming to tropical conditions, development of reproductive technology, integrated livestock systems, broodstock imports, and agriculture precision application with industrial technology 4.0.
According to Ali, Indonesia is lucky to have the support of abundant natural wealth which makes it one of the most competitive countries in the world. This provides an opportunity for the development of the livestock industry. Moreover, the field of animal husbandry has a big role in developing the nation’s economy. (Nadia)