Intensive Livestock Production and the Problem of its Waste Product in the Special Province of Jakarta

Sri Mulyono

Livestock Division for West Jakarta, Dinas Peternakan DKI Jakarta,
Jl. Gunung Sahari Raya, 11, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Profile of Peri-Urban Livestock Production

The Special Province of Jakarta covers an area of 650 km² on the northern coast in West Java with a lowland topography of altitude varying from 0 - 10 m. The population of this Special Province is very large, about 9 million in 1997. As the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta follows an urban life style. Besides its own population, Jakarta has to cope with the increasing number of job-seeking temporary residents from surrounding provinces. Livestock production needs fairly large areas, and the density of inhabitants competes for space and does not encourage the development of livestock production in the city (the Special Province). It is difficult for local farmers in Jakarta to meet the needs of residents in meat, egg and milk. Local production of livestock fulfilled just 1-5% of the needs, although there were some increase in livestock production in the Special Province of Jakarta from 1996-1997 (Table 1).

Table 1. Production of livestock products in the
Special Province of Jakarta (1996-1997)

Increasing production of livestock in Jakarta from 1996-1997 did not satisfy the need because the increase in population growth was greater. In addition to the population growth, the increase in income and the government's promotion to consume more meat, egg and milk, have boosted the demand for such products. The local government of Jakarta attempts to bridge the gap of production and demand by transporting livestock products from other surrounding provinces besides the imports of meat and milk. The supply and consumption of livestock products are shown in Tables 2 and 3.

Table 2. Supply of livestock products in the Special
Province of Jakarta (1996-1997)

Table 3. Per capita consumption of livestock products in the
Special Province of Jakarta (1996-1997)

While annual consumption of an average Indonesian is 6 kg of meat, 5 kg of egg and 4 kg of milk, residents of Jakarta consume several times this national average (Table 3). In terms of agribusiness, livestock production in Jakarta has contributed only 20% compared with 80% contribution from the manufacture of veterinary drugs, feeds and food processing of livestock products. It is fortunate that the farmers in the surrounding areas of Jakarta are ready to supply to the city to make up for the deficit. Otherwise, merchants in Jakarta will be forced to order imported livestock products when shortage arises.

Through the years, animal population in Jakarta has been decreasing. However, a little growth in livestock production has been made through intensification. There are at least three factors that caused the reduction of the animal population. The first factor is demographic density or scarcity of farmland. The second is related to waste product and environmental pollution and the third is the rapid development and urbanisation. Local farms in Jakarta raise dairy cattle, goats, sheep, poultry and pigs. The size of each farm varies from 5 to 300 cows, 5 to 100 goats or sheep, 500 to 20 000 chicken and 50 to 4 500 pigs. There are about 6 000 farmers and 8 600 workers involved in the livestock industry in Jakarta. They are usually organised in group farming or as cooperatives.

Intensive Peri-Urban Livestock Production

Dairy cattle, pig and poultry are significant livestock production activities in the Special Province of Jakarta. In 1963, some farmers started pig farming on 130 ha of farmland. There were some facilities such as quarantine areas, stalls in the raising field and a slaughterhouse. The initial population was 20 324 heads which increased to 66 988 in 1970 and further increased to 71 605 in 1982. The increase in population of pigs was concomitant to the increase in the population of consumers, increase in pork price and expanding tourist industries in Jakarta (increase in restaurants and hotels provided leftover food for pig feed).

However, the increase in pig population in that farmland in West Jakarta caused environmental pollution and deterioration to the surroundings. The farmers released the waste into public drains and clog the sewage and caused foul smell to the air. Beside the environmental pollution, the spread of Brucellosis disease was also evident from tests made on some slaughters. To prevent the spread of this disease, positive-tested pigs were slaughtered immediately. Although the farmers tried to cope with the problems, they were largely unsuccessful. Their efforts ranged from collecting sewage in septic tanks, building bio-gas units, fermenting pig manure for fertiliser or compressing it to be used as bricked (charcoal). The major reason for the failure of all these efforts is because the majority of the people in the area are Muslims who are prohibited to touch or use any kinds of pig products. In the beginning, the pig farming areas were remote enough from residential zones, but as time went by, the residential zones expanded into the pig farming areas. Since May 1997, pig farming had moved out from Jakarta. Today, the quarantine and slaughterhouse remained in an area of 5 ha and is being used to temporarily house live pigs that are just transported from the farms. This ensures hygienic butchery and fresh pork and ham could be quickly delivered to consumers, hotels and restaurants.

For dairy cattle husbandry, farmers in Jakarta have been in this activity even before the Indonesian Independence was declared. Unlike pig farming which occupied an established, concentrated area in West Jakarta, dairy cattle farms were scattered throughout the city. Farmers raise and nurture their cattle in stalls, because they do not have enough space for grassland to graze their cattle. Due to the competition for land for industrialisation and construction (as evidenced by the large numbers of buildings and skyscrapers), dairy cattle farming had steadily declined by about 5% annually over the years. In 1997, there were only 269 farmers left with 4 312 cows. Milk production in Jakarta could only support 0.019% of the consumption.

Consumers prefer to have their milk fresh rather than processed and the fresh milk is delivered directly by farmers. The rest of the milk production is reserved by cooperatives, which transport it to factories for making milk powder and sweet-condensed milk. The Indonesian government, in a move to protect the farmers who have small capital and are unable to compete in the free-market, had set up a ruling that requires factories to compensate their import by a factor of 1 : 1.5. This means that factories have to buy 10 kg of milk from local farmers before they can import 15 kg of milk powder. Since the end of 1997, this ruling has been removed in a deal with IMF regarding free-market.

It is difficult to understand how farmers can still survive in dairy cattle enterprises. This survival is perhaps related to consumers' preference for fresh milk at a much lower price in comparison to imported milk powder. Recently, dairy cattle husbandry has been concentrated in some centres in the city because of the current scarcity of farmland in Jakarta. Concentration of the centres has some advantages in that there is a regular supply of relatively cheap fresh milk for the residents of Jakarta and it is also easier to control diseases in such centres. However, the disadvantages lie in the rapid spread of mastitis and Brucellosis, potential environmental pollution and some shortage of fresh grass.

In 1986, the local government of Jakarta started a project on the relocation of the diary cattle industry as one of the steps to ameliorate these disadvantages. The project on relocation covers 30 ha in the suburb of East Jakarta. It is expected that the area would support 275 farmers with a total of 5 500 lactating cows. This works out to be 10 to 30 cows to a farmer, with an average of 450 m² to 900 m² of farmland. Public facilities such as schools, parks, a community hall, a mosque and recycling units to process waste products and rubbish from households, will be included in the project. There will also be a feed-mill and milk processing units that the farmers can share. So far, about 11 ha of the project have been developed. The local government and farmers' cooperative are still looking for financial support to complete the project. In addition to this relocation project in East Jakarta, farmers are also considering another in the adjacent province of West Java that covers 180 ha of farmland.

Smallholders of poultry (broiler and egg) are disadvantaged because large, integrated farms dominate the business. Under such situation, smallholders changed their business to rear local kampung chicken. This type of chicken meat and egg appeal to a certain sector of consumers who prefer their unique taste and believe that the products have a special effect on human health. They pay premium prices for kampung chicken meat and eggs and such prices had raised the interest in their rearing. In 1997, there were 3 594 farmers with a total of 127 686 heads of kampung chicken.

Summary and Suggestions

The present production of livestock products in Jakarta is inadequate to meet the demands of consumers. Delivery of products from the neighbouring districts, together with imports from foreign countries, is necessary to close the gap between supply and demand. Local production of livestock is still surviving because of special consumer preferences, e.g. for fresh milk, and this provides jobs to the workers in the farms. However, the progressive developments in Jakarta in all aspects of life, viz. an urban lifestyle, rapid industrialisation and building constructions and the scarcity of farmland, have forced livestock farming out of Jakarta. As mentioned previously, the distribution of dairy cattle farming areas was changed gradually from randomly scattered to concentrated areas in well-defined centres. Nowadays, farmers are undertaking projects for relocation of livestock activities from the city into the suburbs. Pig farming had moved out totally with only the slaughterhouse remaining in the city to serve quick delivery of fresh meat. Smallholders of poultry production resist the temptation to close their business in the face of competition from the dominant large farms. Instead, they change the breed of chicken to the kampung type which large farms are not interested.

In conclusion, relocation of farms to the suburbs will be needed in the long run. The main reason for the relocation is environmental pollution of livestock activities in the city. Instead of farming in the city, it would be better to concentrate on trade and services related to livestock products because Jakarta, with its huge population, is a promising market for promoting business in livestock products.