Hormone-free fish on national agenda

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 11/30/2006 12:54 PM  |  Life

Trisha Sertori, Contributor, Batur Tengah, near Kintamani

Oddly, a reduction in harvests of the Nila freshwater fish is proving to be a winning step forward for a Lake Batur fish-farming group in Kintamani, north Bali.

According to head of the Werdiguna group Nyoman Ardana, the farmers' cooperative has made it to the final five groups nationwide that are hoping to take first prize for their fish-farming practices.

The government's aquaculture development competition follows the recent government ban on the use of hormones in fish farming.

""We won the village competition, then the regency- and provincial-level ones and are now up against the other four finalists from South Kalimantan, West Sumatra and Central and East Java.

""If we win I hope we'll meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,"" said Nyoman, adding that strict rules applied in the national competition.

The quality of fish and their physical environment is one of the nine tight selection criteria and the group said fish grown in Lake Batur can compete at any level due to a change in production methods that has wiped out the use of hormones in the growing period.

""In the past, when fish farmers used hormones, fish could grow to a marketable weight of 300 grams in six months; it now takes eight months so our production levels are down, but the product is far better,"" Nyoman said, adding the government had banned the use of hormones due to their being considered hazardous for human health.

The hormones, says Nyoman, could cause deformities in humans such as reducing natural growth in children and causing illness.

""It was a similar problem with intensive chicken farming where hormones were used to stimulate rapid growth. I think people that use those dangerous products are thinking purely about profit and not the long-term health of the public,"" Nyoman said.

He added government pressure was the catalyst for fish farmers to move away from hormone use, which opened the door for farmers to be able to focus on marketing their quality, chemical-free fish.

""When the Government banned hormone use, we were given additional training in managing our farms naturally in an environmentally safe way. That has meant we can now market quality fish free of hormonal and chemical interference,"" Nyoman said.

Expanding their operations to include the export of the Nila species of fish is a long-term goal for the Werdiguna group; however, the associated investment costs are currently well beyond the organization's reach.

Sold into local markets as 300-gram fish fetching Rp 15,000 per kilogram, Nyoman said if the group had enough stock to produce fish to a minimum 1,000 grams for the international market they stood to earn Rp 25,000 per kilogram, almost doubling their return.

""We cannot produce our fish at the moment because when they reach 300 grams the markets here are already buying so we have no stock to draw on. We just don't have the financial resources to wait and set aside stock to grow for an extra 10 months to reach a greater weight,"" Nyoman said of his 107-strong fish farming group.

He pointed out international buyers also sought full container-loads of the fish and with just 1,500 harvestable fish growing in each of the group's 135 Lake Batur ponds, production rates did not allow for sales of that magnitude.

Fish sales are an important element in the Lake Batur farming community, added Nyoman, with fish farmers also running land-based farms that are at the mercy of market forces.

""The price of tomatoes has dropped so dramatically that many farmers are having to plow their crops into the ground rather than sell them to the market at Rp 200 to Rp 500 per kilo; this means that fish farms have become an important source of revenue,"" said Nyoman, stressing that the minimum break-even cost for growing tomatoes was Rp 3,000 per kilogram.

""Fish farms offer a lot of local employment that helps people get through the agricultural bad times,"" said Nyoman, pointing out that the creation of cooperative-type, value-adding initiatives, such as tomato-based products (including tomato pastes and sauces, and drying chilies) would also go a long way to raising base income levels in the arid Lake Batur area.

The national winner of the government's Aquaculture Development Prize will be announced sometime in December.

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