Departing from this, the Center for Food Agriculture & Advocacy (Pataka) in collaboration with the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) and Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) University held a virtual seminar with the theme "Evidence-Based Policies in Competitive Feed," through the Zoom application, Thursday (4 / 3).

In his remarks, IPB University Rector, Prof. Dr. Arif Satria, SP, M.Si. said that efforts in exploring or looking for steps to achieve feed sovereignty are very important to do.

Feed in animal husbandry is an important factor and has a very large share, so it is necessary to find alternatives to various feed ingredients that have high quality and affordable prices. In an effort to develop this feed, it must be formulated in a systematic manner.

"There needs to be a formula in developing this feed, both from universities with various researches to be developed, the government with policies that must be encouraged and from the business world in application development and collaboration with universities," he explained.

On the same occasion, Professor of the Faculty of Animal Husbandry, IPB University, Prof. Muladno Basar explained that in poultry, the control of production raw materials (feed and DOC) is controlled by an integrator company, so that it will affect independent breeders.

In addition, Muladno added that in the field there are still many practices of selling feed packages and DOCs to breeders as part of a business strategy that might harm breeders.

"Under these conditions, breeders must consolidate to form horizontal integration (such as cooperatives) and do business from upstream to downstream. In this consolidation, higher education institutions and the government are obliged to attend to strengthen horizontal integration, "he said.

Representing the Association of Animal Feed Companies (GPMT), Hudian Pramudyasunu said that the challenge for the feed industry in providing feed ingredients is the imposition of VAT on many imported feed ingredients as well as limited local feed ingredients.

Basically, the national feed industry is always ready to support local feed ingredients as long as it meets the required specifications, namely quality stability, sustainable supply and price competitiveness.

"Currently, local feed ingredients have a proportion of 65 percent. Soybean meal as the main protein source in feed cannot be produced domestically and there is no local feed ingredient that can fully replace its use, ”he said.

Meanwhile, other local feed ingredients such as bran can be used up to 15 percent but its availability is seasonal, so it is often replaced by imported feed ingredients. In addition, the proportion of CPO cannot exceed 5 percent, even though its availability is guaranteed.

The same thing was conveyed by Professor of Animal Nutrition, IPB University, Prof. Dr. Nahrowi Ramli, who said that 35 percent of livestock rations in Indonesia must be fulfilled from imports. Of course, alternatives and solutions for the fulfillment of local feed ingredients must be sought.

"There needs to be an expansion of land for the production of feed ingredients. In addition, there needs to be courage to industrialize soybeans and to produce MBM feed ingredients, ”he said.

Nahrowi added that improvements in information systems, logistics and standardization of feed material transportation also need efforts.

The dynamics of the national feed will directly affect the business of breeders. Hidayatul Rahman, as a practitioner of laying hens, said that to accelerate national maize production, the government has carried out various programs, including seed subsidies and fertilizers for corn farmers.

Therefore, with this subsidy, farmers really hope that the price of corn can be affordable. However, the fact is that local maize prices in the field are often above imported maize.

According to him, there needs to be an evaluation or review related to this matter. In addition, SNI for feed based on protein that has been valid also needs to be evaluated and replaced based on the digestibility of the feed.

Source: Poultry Indonesia