THE Jakarta government plans to relocate all shelters as part of the city’s drive to curb avian influenza an official said last month. All residential neighborhoods in the capital are expected to be free from chickens next year, said Edy Setiarto, head of the maritime and agriculture office. The city government plans to build four large chicken shelters in Rawa Kepiting, Cakung, Petukangan and Kalideres. “All chickens in Jakarta must be confined in those places before April 24, 2010,” he said.
THE Jakarta government plans to relocate all chickens from residential areas to special poultry shelters as part of the city’s drive to curb avian influenza, an official said last month. All residential neighborhoods in the capital are expected to be free from chickens next year, said Edy Setiarto, head of the maritime and agriculture office. The city government plans to build four large chicken shelters in Rawa Kepiting, Cakung, Petukangan and Kalideres. “All chickens in Jakarta must be confined in those places before April 24, 2010,” he said.
Despite the deadline, the government has not completed the construction of any of those poultry facilities. In Rawa Kepiting, the nearly-complete, 2-hectare chicken coop is designed to accommodate some 1 million birds. Construction for the three other areas had yet to break ground.
The government earlier banned chicken slaughter houses from operating in the city.
Vice Governor Prijanto has demanded all bird markets in the capital be moved out to suburbs such as Cibubur to contain the spread of the bird flu virus. Jakarta has more than 150 bird markets.
Indonesia is the hardest hit country in the world from the H5N1 virus, with at least 115 fatalities. Since it was first detected in Asia in 2003, the disease has killed more than 240 people worldwide.
INDONESIA government will impose quotas on beef imports to try to safeguard local cattle farmers from a wave of imports from New Zealand, Australia and Brazil, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono says as reported Jakarta Post.
He said last month the import quotas would be made according to demand in the domestic market. “There will be quotas to control imports. These quotas will be based on our needs,” he said.
Anton was responding to a question on the future prospects of four million local beef cattle farmers when the country starts importing beef from Brazil and increasing the beef imports from New Zealand and Australia under the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nation) free trade deal with Australia and New Zealand, agreed recently.
The country plans soon this year to expand its sources of imported beef to include Brazil so as to supply the domestic market with imported beef at competitive prices.
Anton said he would sign a decree “soon” to legalize beef imports from Brazil after receiving a notification of approval from the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Indonesia previously proposed to the WTO so that it should be allowed to choose beef import sources by zone, not by country, due to the mouth and foot disease issue.
Speculation is rife that Australia and New Zealand opposed Indonesia’s decision to import beef from Brazil, which can challenge their dominance in the local business.
However, Anton said no countries, including Australia and New Zealand, had complained against the WTO’s approval of Indonesia’s proposed notification. Indonesia largely imports beef from Australia and New Zealand.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, the country consumed about 380,000 tons of meat and carcasses last year. Local producers supplied 273,000 tons, or 72 percent of the total, while imports accounted for 107,000 tons or 28 percent (including live cattle), mostly from Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
Under the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA, Indonesia will completely slash its import duties on four beef products by 2020 and on seven dairy products between 2017 and 2019. Those tariffs currently average 5 percent.
Beef importing business practices have been rather murky with numerous vested interests backed by top government officials reportedly working together to maintain their advantage in the huge Indonesian market of 230 million people.
VETERINARIANS have demanded a more active role in the country’s meat and meat by-product importing procedures, to prevent dangerous farm products from making their way to people’s plates.
“Currently, we do not have enough power to decide whether a farm product is fit to enter the country,” Indonesian Veterinary Medical Association chairwoman Wiwiek Bagja told as quoted by The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of an European Commission-organized seminar on food safety and export regulations last month.
She warned that authorities involved in importing farm products, such as the Trade Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry, might be allowing in meat and meat by-products carrying hefty risks such as foot-and-mouth disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. Greater involvement by veterinarians was thus necessary, she said. “However, veterinarians are often seen as a nuisance, trying to hinder imports or profits.”
Suhadji, head of the Indonesian Veterinary Association and a former director general of livestock at the Agriculture Ministry, said the role of veterinarians in the import of meat was stipulated in a new bill on farming and livestock. The bill, which is meant to complement a ministerial regulation on livestock and the 1994 law on the establishment of the World Trade Organization, is still under deliberation at the House of Representatives. “The new bill is supposed to give veterinarians more authority in the matter of farm product imports,” Suhadji said.
Fadjar Sumping Tjatur Rasa, director general of livestock services at the Agriculture Ministry, said there had been disputes delaying the formulation of the new bill. “For instance, both veterinarians and livestock experts forwarded their own versions of the bill,” he said.
Meanwhile, Indonesia is opening its doors wider to risky farm products, said Robi Agustiar, deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian Society of Animal Science. “The country risks spreading mad cow disease by importing risky farm products such as cow’s brains, spinal chords and intestines from the United States and Canada,” he warned.
He added it was much cheaper to import those meat by-products than to use local ones. “Thus, not only they are exposing people to mad cow disease risk, but also putting local farmers at a disadvantage,” he said.
Indonesians often use bovine body parts such as intestines or brains in their meals. Those body parts, as well as skulls, are categorized as specified risk materials and must be removed from bovines during the process of slaughtering, cutting and butchering, the seminar heard.
Wiwiek said that besides importing those dangerous body parts, authorities are also risking Indonesia’s reputation as the only country in Southeast Asia free of foot-and-mouth disease for a hundred years by importing meat from Brazil. “Some regions in Brazil have been declared free of foot-and-mouth disease, but not all,” she explained. “There’s always a chance that infected products will find their way to Indonesia.
Indonesian Association of Meat Traders (APDI) chairman M. Nurdin R., however, played down such concerns. “Indonesians are accustomed to cook their meat before eating it, unlike Westerners who like eating it rare, thus the cooking process will minimize the possibility of disease transfer,” he said. He added he saw no serious danger from importing meat and its by-products from Brazil. “There’s not much chance that meat from one or two regions declared susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease will find its way here, especially when those regions hardly have enough meat supply for themselves.”
However, Nurdin underlined the need for more solid regulations to ensure better flow of the meat trade. “If the government enacts proper regulation, then businesspeople will know exactly what to do, thus increasing their productivity.”
PRESIDENT Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the country must harness the power of research to improve agricultural output, in order to achieve self-sufficiency in food production.
The number of Indonesian citizens is increasing and will continue to increase in the coming years. We need to achieve food security to meet their needs,” the president said during the opening of Agrinex 2009, an agricultural exhibition.
Yudhoyono said that the country had been wasting natural resources such as water for years, forcing it to import staple foods such as rice and sugar to meet domestic demand.
The government launched a national program in 2005 to counter these mistakes and strengthen food security by improving production in the agriculture and fishery sectors. “Now we’re gradually starting to meet our own needs,” Yudhoyono said. “We’ve already reached self-sufficiency in corn, rice and sugar production and we’re striving to meet targets in meat and soybean output.
Agriculture is a labor-intensive industry that demands sustainable production methods to support food stocks and provide jobs, he said. “We have an opportunity to export fresh vegetables from West Kalimantan Province to Singapore, which needs about 1,000 tons of vegetables per day — yet we only export about 5 percent of that amount,” he said.
Food shortages and fluctuations in food prices are a growing global concern. Indonesia should respond to these challenges, the president said, by contributing to global food security and providing enough food for both the domestic and foreign
“We could cooperate with other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to ensure regional food security. Indonesia can also play a role in providing food to the world — it’s not just about countries like Thailand,” he said, referring to one of the world’s biggest rice exporters. ASEAN is comprised of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei Darussalam, Laos, Burma and Vietnam.
Source : Poultry Indonersia
No comments:
Post a Comment