July 12, 2011

 

Numbers of cattle, buffalo down in Indonesia's province

 

 

Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) has 700,000 head of cattle and buffalo, down from 800,000 in 2006, according to the government.

 

The decrease was attributed to poorly regulated trade mechanisms that allowed an excessive number of female cows and buffaloes to be transported out of the province, Poltak Soetrisno Siahaan, the head of the Central Statistics Agency's (BPS) NTT office, said.

 

"We are still working on the details, but for sure the population has dropped to 700,000," he said.

 

The local BPS recently completed an animal census in the province to bolster the local government's meat self-sufficiency campaign.

 

NTT Governor Frans Leburaya launched a campaign last year to make the province a cattle-breeding centre and return the local population of cattle and buffalo to its record high of 1.5 million in 1997.

 

The government has encouraged local cattle breeding efforts in the wake of Australia's decision to halt live cattle exports to Indonesia after a television documentary detailed the "unacceptable treatment of Australian cattle at some Indonesian slaughterhouses".

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