September 30, 2024

 

Plan to set up large dairy farm in Indonesia sparks concerns of environmental impact

 

 

A proposal to import cows and open a large dairy farm in Indonesia to support president-elect Prabowo Subianto's trademark free meal programme has sparked concerns about its potential impact on the environment and climate, with experts urging the government to study the plan further and consider relying on local food sources instead.

 

The proposal was first raised by Sis Apik Wijayanto, director of state-owned food holding ID Food, at a meeting with House of Representatives members on September 11. He told lawmakers about a plan to import 1.5 million dairy cows to support the free meal programme, citing low domestic milk production.

 

Indonesia's dairy cattle herd has been stagnating over the past decade with only about 600,000 head, with the total milk production capacity reaching 900,000 liters in 2022, far below the national demand of 4.4 million liters, according to the Agriculture Ministry. But Sis' proposal was met with concerns by some scientists and activists, who argued that the mega farm's potential environmental costs may outweigh the free meal programme's benefits.

 

Sonny Mumbunan, coordinator of the University of Indonesia's Center for Climate and Sustainable Finance (CCSF), said the proposal to import millions of dairy cattle may lead to "major environmental impacts".

 

The opening of a large-scale dairy farm, he argued, may worsen the climate crisis through the emission of greenhouse gases.

 

"We still don't clearly know whether the environmental costs are greater than the free meal programme's budget, [but] the impact is certainly not as simple as we think because it comes from various parts of the supply chain," Sonny said.

 

He urged the Indonesian government to conduct further studies to calculate the potential environmental impact before moving forward with investing in giant dairy farms.

 

The plan to build large-scale dairy farms also raised fears of exacerbating deforestation across the archipelago, as has been the case with other commodities such as palm oil and pulp and paper, said Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Arie Rompas.

 

To support dairy cattle import, the government is reportedly preparing 1.5 million hectares of land for private companies, including forest lands, productive farming lands, and oil palm plantations in North Sumatra, East Java, Maluku, and Banten, among other regions.

 

Arie warned that the plan to clear land for dairy cattle could increase the risk of hydrometeorological disasters, ranging from wildfires, to floods and droughts, which have already been more intense and frequent in recent years.

 

- The Jakarta Post