Calculation of livestock biomass and value by province in Indonesia: Key information to support policymaking.

Accurate estimations of the biomass and value of livestock in Indonesia are of great use in supporting investment decisions by the public and private sector and as a basis for estimating the losses due to animal disease. Biomass and the partial direct use value for key livestock species (cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens) for all provinces of Indonesia were derived from secondary data using a novel spreadsheet-based model. Using beef cattle as an example, we also explored the use of a herd dynamics model to validate base data on populations and productivity used to generate biomass values, and these were found to be generally robust. Total partial direct use value of livestock is estimated to be almost USD54 billion in 2021, comprising almost USD33 billion of population value and almost USD21 billion of production value. Beef cattle account for 44% of total value and chicken (broiler, layer and native chickens) account for a further 36% of the total. Breaking the data down by province reveals the regional importance of some livestock types that are of relatively minor importance nationally (pigs in East Nusa Tenggara and sheep in West Java). It also reveals the importance of livestock in the poorest provinces of Indonesia, where livestock acts as a store of wealth and serves socio-cultural purposes.

Competitiveness analysis of fresh tomatoes in Indonesia: Turning comparative advantage into competitive advantage.

Tomato commodity ranks fifth regarding vegetable export volume and value in Indonesia. The main issues with tomato production in Indonesia are seemingly its lack of variations, quantity, quality, and supply continuity. This study aimed to analyze the comparative and the competitive advantages of tomato farming, evaluate the government policy on inputs, outputs, and input-output sectors, and formulate strategic for transforming the comparative advantage into a competitive advantage. Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) and sensitivity analysis were employed as the method with the 75 farmers as the respondents and their Focus Group Discussion (FGD) involving farmer groups, agricultural extension workers, traders, and the Agricultural Service Offices in the respective regencies. The results showed that tomato farming has both its comparative and competitive advantages. Its comparative advantage was higher than its competitive advantage in both dry and wet seasons. In general, tomato farming's comparative and competitive advantages outside Java were higher than those in Java. Meanwhile, the divergence effects of tomato agribusiness were more beneficial to consumers than producers. It indicates that improving domestic tomato production was more profitable for Indonesia than importing this commodity in terms of domestic resource use. The sensitivity analysis shows that tomato farming was relatively stable regarding productivity and price changes. The suggested strategic policies to apply are transforming tomato farming's comparative advantage into competitive advantage through productivity enhancement, improvement of distribution efficiency, less market distortion, and government incentives.

Transformation of financial institutions grants from the government to inclusive financial institutions in Indonesia.

Low-income communities have limited capital and access to money or loans from formal financial institutions. To solve the problems, the government provides solutions, one of them is by forming a microfinance program, namely Rural Agribusiness Business Development (PUAP). PUAP program is one of the grant activities to farmer group association (Gapoktan) with a total capital assistance of IDR 100 million. The problem with the 52,186 Gapoktan units that participated in PUAP activities, only 7,703 units (15%) were transformed into Agribusiness Microfinance Institutions (LKMA). This paper differs from others as it briefly explains the PUAP/MFI's institutional transformation and the factors that affect its sustainability, which is so far still limited discussed. The paper aims to see what transformations Gapoktan becomes an inclusive LKMA and the level of sustainability of the LKMA. The research was conducted in Kendal Regency, Central Java- Indonesia, in 2022 on 5 LKMA. The process of transforming LKMA into an inclusive financial institution is analyzed descriptively. LKMA sustainability levels were analyzed using a multidimensional scaling (MDS) approach with the Rapfish application. So far, MDS with the Rapfish application is still very limited for microfinance analysis. MDS analysis is employed because it is relatively simple and effective for looking at sensitive attributes in improving sustainability and generating leverage attributes that can be used for policy-making. The result study shows that the transformation of PUAP into LKMA is driven by the ability to improve legality, financial governance and diversify the customer's business field. The five LKMAs have a sustainability status of 'sufficient' in running their business, with an index value of more than 50%. The study recommends 1) the Indonesian government could assist LKMA in improving its legality and 2) LKMA's management should get training by experts to improve its financial capability to manage the cost saving.

An ecohealth assessment of poultry production clusters (PPCs) for the livelihood and biosecurity improvement of small poultry producers in Asia.

BACKGROUND: Poultry production cluster (PPC) programs are key strategies in many Asian countries to engage small commercial poultry producers in high-value production chains and to control infectious poultry diseases. This study assessed the multiple impacts of PPCs through a transdisciplinary ecohealth approach in four Asian countries, and drew the implications for small producers to improve their livelihoods and reduce the risk of spreading infectious diseases in the poultry sector. METHODS: The data collection combined both quantitative and qualitative methods. It comprised: formal structured household survey questionnaires, measuring the biosecurity level of poultry farms with a biosecurity score card; and key informant interviews. Descriptive statistics were used to process the quantitative data and a content analysis was used to process the qualitative data. RESULTS: This research found that poultry farms in clusters do not necessarily have better economic performance than those outside PPCs. Many farmers in PPCs only consider them to be an advantage for expanding the scale of their poultry operations and improving household incomes, and they are less concerned about-and have limited capacities to-enhancing biosecurity and environmental management. We measured the biosecurity level of farms in PPCs through a 14-item checklist and found that biosecurity is generally very low across all sample sites. The increased flies, mosquitoes, rats, and smells in and around PPCs not only pollute the environment, but also cause social conflicts with the surrounding communities. CONCLUSION: This research concluded that a poultry cluster, mainly driven by economic objectives, is not necessarily a superior model for the control of infectious diseases. The level of biosecurity in PPCs was found to be low. Given the intensity of poultry operations in PPCs (farms are densely packed into clusters), and the close proximity to residential areas of some PPCs, the risk of spreading infectious diseases, in fact, increases. Good management and collective action for implementing biosecurity measures are key for small producers in PPCs to address common challenges and pursue health-based animal production practices.