A fodder vendor in Malang, Indonesia (photo credit: ILRI/Steve Staal).

A new project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) that will improve marketing and access to livestock fodder for Indonesia’s smallholder farmers has officially begun.

The ‘Fodder markets in East Java: Identifying interventions to improve market performance and quality’ project held its kick-off meeting on 26-27 August 2015 in Malang, Indonesia on the campus of the Balai Pengkajian Teknologi Pertanian (BPTP) Jawa Timur (Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development), Ministry of Agriculture, the key national partner implementing the project.

The project’s goal is to examine decision-making patterns and incentives of livestock producers and feed market actors related to feed and fodder use and marketing. The project will also evaluate the performance of feed and fodder markets by looking into the efficiency of exchange mechanisms and the relationship between feed price and feed quality.

The use of crop residues for livestock feed is expected to increasingly become more important as demand for livestock products grows, production systems intensify, and land becomes more scarce across Southeast Asia, making the markets for fodder markets crucial and significant.

During the two-day workshop, participants discussed similar research on fodder markets in Asia, lessons, and background information on livestock development and feed and fodder markets in East Java. They also developed project research tools and agreed on target sites and actors. Project team members also visited several livestock producers, feed and fodder market agents and feed processors in the area around Malang.

Steve Staal, ILRI regional representative for East and Southeast Asia, and Michael Blummel, feed research lead scientist, with project partners in Indonesia (photo credit: ILRI).

The fodder market project will run for a year, and its main activities include focus group discussions, livestock producer and feed market actor surveys, and survey data analysis using econometric methods. Feed quality analysis for digestibility factors using near-infrared spectrometry (NIRS) technology will be conducted at ILRI’s laboratory in Patancheru, India, as part of the project.

The workshop was co-led by Steve Staal, ILR’s regional representative for East and Southeast Asia, and Kuntoro Boga Andri, senior economist at BPTP. Michael Blummel, ILRI’s lead scientist on feed research also participated in the meeting.

In addition to several BPTP scientists, other partners at the meetings included Brawijaya University and Malang State University representatives. Several MSc students who attended the workshop will participate in the project and contribute to the analysis while completing their theses.

MSc students at the kick-off meeting (photo credit: ILRI/Steve Staal).

See the project summary on ILRI’s website.

Read about ILRI’s research on fodder in India.