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View all search resultsMilk is a key component of President Prabowo Subianto’s free nutritious meal program, as promised during his presidential campaign, despite Indonesia’s limited domestic capacity to meet a significant surge in demand.
The centerpiece of a program to provide free meals to 83 million children and expectant mothers, the plan calls for importing a million dairy cows over five years, at a cost of nearly $3 billion, to lift the size of the country's dairy herd more than four-fold from 220,000 now.
Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said on Friday that domestic milk production could only cover around 20 percent of national demand, leaving the country to face a 4.9 million tonnes deficit.
A multifaceted, systemic approach is necessary to address Indonesia's dual crisis of iron deficiency anemia and childhood stunting, to ensure the health and well-being of current generations so they can thrive and contribute to our collective future.
Experts have called for caution over the government's ambitious plan to import dairy cattle in its push to achieve milk self-sufficiency as part of efforts to support Prabowo's flagship free meal program, pointing to existing challenges including livestock and disease management as well as smallholder well-being.
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