TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Farming Got milk? Dairy farmers call for funding
Thousands of dairy farmers in East Java lack funds to boost their productivity, an executive with the association of Indonesian dairy cooperatives said earlier this week
Change Size
T
housands of dairy farmers in East Java lack funds to boost their productivity, an executive with the association of Indonesian dairy cooperatives said earlier this week.
Speaking in Malang, the association’s East Java manager, Sulistiyanto, said the farmers needed money could come from bank loans.
“The problem is, it’s very difficult for the farmers to get the loans because most of them don’t have the high collateral required by the banks,” he said.
He added the farmers also found it difficult saving up to make improvements to their facilities, given that they earned relatively little from the sale of dairy products.
“Domestic dairy farmers just don’t earn enough from their activities,” he stressed.
Fuad Ardiansyah, manager of the Sekar Tanjung Pasuruan dairy farmers’ cooperative, said the fluctuating prices of dairy products had contributed to the low productivity.
“We’re highly dependent on volatile international prices,” he said.
Sulistiyanto said that with a production cost of Rp 3,400 (37 US cents) per liter of fresh milk, farmers expected to sell the product for at least Rp 3,600 a liter and cooperatives expected to sell it for Rp 4,000 a liter.
However, he pointed out, the current market price was much lower.
He added that with the desired price, farmers would be able to better feed their livestock and even acquire new heads of cattle.
This way, Sulistiyanto went on, farmers could see their milk output increase from the current 10 to 20 liters per cow daily, up to 30 liters.
He called on the government to set up a taskforce to, among others, determine a fair price for fresh milk sold directly by the farmers.
East Java is home to more than 40,000 dairy farmers. An estimated 10 percent practice traditional methods and own an average three cows.
Sulistiyanto said such small-scale dairy farmers made very little in the way of income and thus could not save much to out back into the business.
“If they could only get the bank loans they need, they could buy more cows and thus boost their productivity,” he said.
He pointed out that boosting their herds by waiting for their existing cows to give birth would leave the farmers in limbo for years, thus curtailing any opportunity for forward development.
Heifers currently retail for Rp 12 million to Rp 15 million, depending on the size and breed.
Sulistiyanto said the prohibitive prices, relative to the farmers’ purchasing power, was the main reason the total population of dairy cows in East Java had only increased slightly, from 360,000 in 2000 to 400,000 last year.
