Milk
Made: Six dairy producers from Holland visit Indonesian counterparts, offering
technical advice in Farmer2Farmer program
Jakarta Globe, Adelia Anjani Putri, Oct 02, 2014
 |
| Dairy farmers collect milk at a farm in Lembang, Bandung, West Java (JG Photo/Rezza Estily) |
Cisarua,
West Java. Four experienced Dutch dairy farmers have come to Indonesia to train
local farmers in ways to improve milk production.
Wendy Kamp,
Gerben Smeenk, Marten Djikstra and Jan ten Kate were brought to Indonesia by
dairy company FrieslandCampina through the Farmer2Farmer program.
The
initiative aims to helps farmers share their experiences and knowledge in order
to help local dairy farmers to increase the quality and quantity of their milk
production.
The guest
farmers scores their Indonesian counterparts on current practices and held a
short training on how to improve conditions for workers, including how to
increase sunlight exposure on cow pens and how to milk cows properly.
With over
19,000 farms and 1.5 million cows, Holland is one of world’s leading milk
producers. In 2012, the Dutch produced 11.6 million tons per year — far
surpassing Indonesia’s 38.4 million liters recorded by the Central Statistics
Agency.
Traditional
farming practices and lack of land are the two most often-cited reasons for
Indonesian farmers’ poor production .
“They still
use traditional ways and keep doing the same mistakes, especially with the
hygiene and feeding system. For instance, here farmers give the cows random
grass available nearby without considering the cows’ nutritional needs. The
food, of course, affects the quality of the milk,” Gerben Smeenk said.
“In
Holland, the farmers have higher education and different circumstances, with
the climate and land, so we can’t really compare the two countries,” Jan ten
Kate said.
While some
believe Holland’s farmers are advantaged by having as many as 85 hectares in
which cows may roam freely, while Indonesian farms still use small cages, the
reality is that range has diminishing returns — particularly for dairy cattle.
“We need
government’s attention,” Erif Kemal Syarif, one of the trained farmers, said
upon receiving the training. “We’re not really behind the farmers abroad, but
we still need help from the government with the land. They should provide
permanent farming land for us.”
Erif also
said the government needs to lower taxes on farm equipment.
“The tax is
too high. I recently bought a milking machine for Rp 110 million, [$9,000] and
the spare parts cost me Rp 1 million each! I need to change eight of them twice
a year, while it only costs around Rp 400 thousand each in Holland,” he said.
The Farmer2Farmer
exchange, which reached six farms in West Java and Central Java, is the second
such visit to Indonesia. Participants are scheduled to share their findings in
Jakarta on Oct. 10.
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