{"id":91705,"date":"2022-10-29T07:29:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-29T00:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ekuatorial.com\/?p=91705"},"modified":"2022-10-29T02:19:46","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T19:19:46","slug":"what-happens-when-investors-make-a-cattle-call-on-ranching-indonesias-aru-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ekuatorial.com\/en\/2022\/10\/what-happens-when-investors-make-a-cattle-call-on-ranching-indonesias-aru-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens when investors make a cattle call on ranching Indonesia’s Aru Islands?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Popjetur Elementary School was abnormally crowded on that day in October 2017, but not by students like one might expect; by officials and the public. They were all there for a face-to-face meeting related to the planned entry of cattle ranching investment.<\/p>\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThis story also appeared in Mongabay Indonesia\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

The officials present included Amran Sulaiman, Minister of Agriculture; Johan Gonga, Regent of Aru Regency; Zeth Sahuburua, Deputy Governor of Maluku; Maluku police chief and businessman, Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad otherwise known as \u201cHaji Isam.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the walls of the school, there are banners for face-to-face events between the Minister of Agriculture and the village government and farming communities throughout the South Aru District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yosias Siarukin, a resident of Popjetur, was curious to see the meeting and tried to approach. Yosias once fought against the entry of sugar cane plantations,  PT Menara Group<\/a> in his area, so he was always wary when he saw official meetings in the village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure enough, the meeting turned out to be a promotional event concerning ranching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I saw that in the group there was a big businessman named Haji Isam. Haji Isam introduced himself as a farm manager,\u201d said Yosias, last June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yosias said the meetings didn\u2019t involve all the Indigenous stakeholders, many of whom should have been represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ladies and gentlemen, hopefully next year (2018) we will send cows here, in this place, our sub-district head will send at least 200 large cows here,” said the agricultural minister in a video clip of the meeting Mongabay Indonesia received. <\/p>\n\n\n

\"Public
<\/span>Public Relations of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Amran Sulaiman, the minister of agriculture from 2014-2019.<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

After Amran’s visit in 2017, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture then visited Aru during the same year with 10 cows, which were immediately taken to the Animal Husbandry Center, about two kilometers from a residential area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government of the Aru Islands Government responded to the visit of the Minister of Agriculture’s group in May 2018 by holding a public comment meeting on the cattle husbandry investment plan, attended by representatives of four companies that planned to start cattle ranching<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2018, two groups of companies, accompanied by the Maluku Agriculture Office, arrived for further meetings and community dialogue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In their meetings, they promised 2,000 cows to help us,” Yosias said, but since then, the community has never heard of further investment. Meanwhile, the cows at the center died one by one.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Christ
<\/span>Christ Belseran\/Mongabay Indonesia<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
An empty cattle hall and barn in Popjetur Village. The promise to enrich the community has evaporated with time.<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

The 2017 national beef outlook<\/a> data shows that the per capita consumption of beef for the Indonesian people in 2017-2021 has grown by an average of 6.30% per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The projection of the Ministry of Agriculture is that national beef consumption in the next five years in aggregate will grow by an average of 7.55% per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study from the Ministry of Agriculture claims that beef self-sufficiency could have been achieved in 2021, with an estimated beef surplus of 9,190 tons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, BPS data shows the national beef production of 486 319.65 tons. That year, Isam’s company had obtained a cattle breeding permit for about 20,000 hectares in Bombana, Indonesia. In 2019, permits were issued for four cattle breeding companies covering an area of \u200b\u200b61,567 hectares on the Aru Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from the Central Statistics Agency <\/a>shows that Indonesia’s beef imports continue to increase. From 65,020 tons equivalent to US$234.27 million in 2011, to 167,130 tons or US$690 million in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n