ACIAR Indonesia

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ACIAR - Indonesia Agriculture/livestock
consultation February 2007 John Skerritt Deputy
Director
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ACIAR

• ACIARs Mission To achieve more productive and
  sustainable agricultural systems, for the
  benefit of Developing Countries and Australia,
  through international agricultural research
  partnerships
• ACIAR does not carry out R D itself
• Total projects value in Indonesia 9.6m in
  2006/07, 11.8m in 2007/08
• ACIAR bilateral and IARC projects
• Australia-Indonesia Partnership funding of
  3.5-5.4 m (Aceh and SADI-SMAR)
• Plus short-course and scholarship training

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Three consultation meetings aim
to(agriculture/livestock, fisheries, forestry)

• determine a framework for collaborative research
  for development activities over the next four
  year period
• drive ACIARs contribution to the new country
  development strategy that guides all Australian
  development assistance activities
• finalise ACIAR Annual Operational Plan for
  2007-08

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Overall Australia-Indonesia development
cooperation strategy

• The April 2006 White Paper Australian Aid
  promoting growth and stability placed emphasis
  on
• economic growth as being central to poverty
  reduction
• strengthening support for private sector-led
  rural and business development
• development of lagging regions such as Eastern
  Indonesia
• Other emphases fostering functioning and
  effective states, investing in people and
  promoting regional stability and cooperation
• Single Whole of Government strategy being
  produced for cooperation with Indonesia by
  mid-2007
• investment in agriculture and rural development
  will form only a few percent of
  the 400m per year program

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Program focus

• Move from a set of individual projects to support
  a small number of larger, integrated themes or
  subprograms
• This means that we cannot operate across all
  areas of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and
  natural resource management in Indonesia
• The identification of the themes for the
  ACIAR-Indonesia program is based on
• Indonesias agricultural priorities
• issues amenable to a practical solution through
  research
• presence of systems for adoption of the research
  results
• priority to Australia and availability of
  Australian expertise
• availability of ACIAR staff and budget resources

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Program issues for discussion

• Sub-sectoral emphasis (e.g. between horticulture,
  livestock, quarantine, product processing)
• Balance between investment in collaborative RD
  on production, market development, policy and
  resource management issues
• Alignment of Australian and Indonesian interests
• Opportunities for greater involvement of
  communities and the private sector in the program
  
• Complementarities with major Indonesian
  Government programs and donor initiatives
• How to improve the adoption of research results
  by end-users (e.g. farmers, industry,
  policymakers)
• Priorities for capacity building

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Priority setting top-down and bottom-up
Problems amenable to research
Problems that RD may help to solve
Shared expertise and interest
Indonesian expertise and interest
Australian expertise and interest
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Geographical focusalignment with the overall
Australian aid program

• Program includes Nusa Tenggara Timur, Nusa
  Tenggara Barat, South, Southeast and North
  Sulawesi
• Australian experience in working in similar
  environments
• Collaboration with RD organisations and
  policymakers in Java and Western Sumatra
  important in policy research, biosecurity
  collaboration, horticulture and aquaculture
• Difficult for ACIAR to expand the geographic
  scope of the program without a major contraction
  elsewhere
• In response to the 2004 tsunami, ACIAR commenced
  some medium-term projects in Aceh

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The way we work

• Funding collaborative RD between Indonesia
  and Australian RD organisations
• Contracts developed/managed by discipline
  specialists covering crops, livestock,
  fisheries, forestry, agricultural economics,
  policy and systems
• Projects of 1-5 years duration
  across six research
  themes
• Outputs include new agricultural technologies,
  stronger institutional and researcher capacity,
  identification of policy options

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Fostering collaborations to improve project
impact

• Between the research agencies in agriculture,
  forestry and fisheries and the policy/implementati
  on directorategenerals in the same ministries
• With other Ministries such as the Ministry of
  Trade
• Between the central research institutes in Java
  and Sumatra and eastern Indonesian adaptive
  research agencies and planning authorities
• Greater involvement of private sector and NGOs
• Multidisciplinary Australian and Indonesian teams

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 Current strategy
ACIARs Indonesian Program has a strong
emphasis on RD to improve farmer and fisherfolk
livelihoods

• to improve production systems and add value to
  Indonesian agricultural (livestock, fisheries,
  forestry and horticultural) products
• develop market linkages through greater emphasis
  on farming as agribusinesses

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Developing agribusiness a common objective

• It is proposed that the ACIAR program will
  maintain a focus on high-value commodities
• for which there is strong export or domestic
  market demand
• that are identified as priorities by the GOI
• for which major constraints require addressing
  through research
• In addition to supporting research on production
  and productivity enhancement, ACIAR projects will
  also address related pest, disease, postharvest
  and market development issues.

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Indonesia six program themes

• 1. Policy options for Indonesian agribusiness
• 2. Pest and disease management
• 3.Productive smallholder aquaculture

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Cocoa improvement, disease and pest management
Better management of pests and diseases reduced
chemical use
Supply chain management for bananas
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• 4. Sustainable utilisation and management of
  fisheries and forestry resources
• 5. Profitable agribusiness systems for Eastern
  Indonesia
• 6. Technical cooperation to underpin
  post-Tsunami rehabilitation of agriculture and
  fisheries

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Technical cooperation to underpin post-Tsunami
rehabilitation Redevelopment of vegetable
production, Pidie
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Agribusiness policy research

• Agricultural trade policy research (commodity- or
  industry-specific studies) looking at constraints
  to agribusiness development
• Domestic rural development policy research,
  including analysis of structural adjustment
  following trade liberalisation, cooperative
  arrangements and role of social capital in
  successful rural institutions.
• Research on institutional adjustments that will
  improve links between farmers and markets,
  including market development research
• Assessing impacts of decentralisation

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Biosecurity, plant and animal health

• Quarantine cooperation increasingly important for
  both Indonesia and Australia
• information on pest, disease and weed problems,
  and how to minimise their numbers and damage
• improved diagnostic and taxonomic ability
• information on the habits of target species to
  underpin control and management
• disinfestation technologies
• preventative animal health control
• Pest and disease management for improved
  productivity and product quality

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Crops and Natural Resources

• Australia has limited expertise in breeding and
  agronomy of many tropical field crops such as
  rice, maize and soybean
• Thus we have focussed our involvement to
  horticulture and specialised areas within
  plantation crops where individual Australian
  groups have skills (e.g. in crop protection or
  processing) to address Indonesian needs
• A related focus is optimising croplivestock
  systems in Eastern Indonesia
• Water management in the drier areas of Eastern
  Indonesia will be a high priority in improving
  agricultural incomes
• But most NRM work will be integrated within
  interdisciplinary projects

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Animal production and health

• In livestock production, the main focus is
  ruminant nutrition and husbandry (growth,
  fertility), particularly of Bali cattle in
  eastern Indonesia
• Less emphasis on genetic improvement, due to long
  timeframes for development of stock with superior
  traits
• Animal health projects focus on
• highly-infectious viral agents surveillance
  systems and responses, including effective use of
  vaccines
• regulatory and policy reform to reduce
  impediments to effective disease control
• endemic livestock diseases - if there are major
  production losses affecting incomes, and
  a project impact pathway
• targeted research to reduce the threat of HPAI

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Capacity development prioritiesalso for review
and discussion at this meeting

• Investment in institutional development in
  Eastern Indonesia
• Training for researchers/managers involved in
  ACIAR projects
• Up to 35 places for postgraduate training in
  Australia are available for Indonesians at any
  one time
• Consultations during 2006 included requests for
  the following short courses to be provided by
  ACIAR
• Research Management training
• Commercialisation of research results
• Integrating social and economic methods for
  biophysical agricultural researchers
• Fostering agricultural research-extension
  linkages
• Information and Communication Technology
• Scientific Writing

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Smallholder agribusiness development initiative
Four provinces (NTB, NTT, S and SE Sulawesi)

• An integrated 10 year program
• Enhanced smallholder production and marketing
  (implemented by the KDP Secretariat/ World
  Bank)
• Strengthened private sector agribusiness and
  Small - Medium Enterprise development
  (implemented
  by International Finance Corporation)
• Support for market-driven adaptive research
  (implemented by ACIAR)

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Smallholder Agribusiness Development Initiative
Subprogram 3Support for Market-driven Adaptive
Research

• Adaptive Research and Development
• market chain and institutional assessments and
  project funding
• initial projects identified in workshops (Nov
  06-Jan 07)
• Improved Knowledge Transfer (extension) Processes
• assess current research-extension linkages and
  methods
• develop improved linkages and extension methods
• utilisation in pilot extension trials
• Institutional Development
• assist with RD policies and procedures
• improved human resources and physical resources

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Increasing project impact Some lessons learnt by
ACIAR

• Collaboration strongest if the topic is a high
  priority of both Indonesian and Australian
  partners
• Engage the right technical people
• Consider fewer and larger projects
• Involvement of extension organisations and
  identification of dissemination pathways should
  be included from project start
• Involvement of the private sector and NGOs has
  been successful in other countries
• Technology-focussed research projects often also
  need to address cross-cutting issues, including
• lack of integration between production and
  marketing
• poor access and use of technical and market
  information
• policy and regulatory constraints

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Australia is a major partner in
projectsAustralian benefits of involvement

• Direct benefits to Australian agricultural
  productivity
• Market information openly obtained
• Development of personal networks that are
  important in trade and resource co-management
  (fisheries)
• Staff development - igniting leadership skills,
  thinking more broadly across disciplines
• Understanding the policy environment in the region