IndoDairy Extension and Indo Livestock Expo
The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) funded IndoDairy project, ‘AGB/2012/099: Improving Milk Supply Competitiveness and Livelihoods in Small Dairy Chains in Indonesia’, led by Prof Wendy Umberger at the Centre for Global Food and Resources (CGFAR), has just entered into its third year and it has a kept them momentum from previous years with commencing a number of field activities and disseminating the results of the previous studies.
In the past month, IndoDairy collaborators, including CGFAR researchers, travelled to Indonesia to lead training and extension activities, as well as participate in the Indo Livestock Expo.
IndoDairy extension activities
In June 2018, the project hired Village Level Researchers (VLRs) – five recent graduates of Padjajaran University, Bandung. These motivated young researchers play a critical role engaging famers through training and extension activities throughout the project. In the past 12 months, Indonesian and Australian project collaborators, including CGFAR, ICARD and Australasian Dairy Consultants designed and implemented an integrated training program for the project VLRs, dairy co-operatives staff and researchers.
Between 25 to 27 June, the IndoDairy project hosted a workshop on Milk Quality and Hygiene, delivered by Denise Burrell. Dr. Brad Granzin and Zita Ritchie and also revised on all topics delivered under the project, including dairy cattle nutrition, reproduction and farm business management. During the first half of 2019 farmers were recruited into a number of extension activities which are being trialled over the course of 2019-2020. These include: Farmer Discussion Groups, Women’s Discussion Group and Focus Farmers. The project VLRs will facilitate these activities with support from their local dairy co-operative counterparts.
In the past two weeks, Focus Farmers and Discussion Groups commenced with the VLRs having their first meetings across the 5 study sites: Cijeruk, Cisarua, Cianjur, Pangalengan and Cikajang. They were mentored by Vyta Hanifah, Zita Ritchie and Brad Granzin. The project is working with almost 200 farmers across West Java to evaluate the impact of these extension approaches.
The Focus Farmer (FF) model is an extension methodology adapted from Australia in the Bogor region. The key to FF is the topics and discussions are driven by the individual farmer’s goals and a group of advisors meet regularly. On 28 June 2019, Dr. Brad Granzin, Zita Ritchie, Vyta Hanifah and Attin Syahnurotin and ICARD researchers, met with the two Focus Farmers in Cijeruk, Pak Yunus and Pak Ma’mur, to set the goals for their FF experience. The first technical advisory group will meet in August.
Indo livestock expo
The 14th Indo Livestock Expo and Forum was held in Surabaya between 3 and 5 July 2019. One of Indonesia’s leading livestock, feed, dairy, and fisheries forums with representatives from industry and government in Indonesia, as well as neighbouring countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam).
The two major ACIAR funded livestock collaborations in Indonesia - IndoDairy and IndoBeef IndoBeef, led by University of New England (UNE) - were represented at the expo. While at different stages of implementation, IndoDairy and IndoBeef represents a long history of collaboration between Australia and Indonesia spanning more than 30 years, in particular with the Indonesia Centre for Animal Research and Development (ICARD).
CGFAR researcher, Jack Hetherington , represented the IndoDairy at Expo including participating in a panel discussion with Associate Professor John Ackerman, UNE and Dr. Atien Priyanti, Director of ICARD. Additionally, resources that have been developed by both projects were showcased at the Expo at the shared booth.
The resources developed by the IndoDairy project can be found at the project website in English and Bahasa Indonesia – www.indodairy.net
