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

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

2. ACIAR • ACIAR’s 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

3. 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 ACIAR’s contribution to the new country development strategy that guides all Australian development assistance activities • finalise ACIAR Annual Operational Plan for 2007-08

4. 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

5. 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: • Indonesia’s 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

6. Program issues for discussion • Sub-sectoral emphasis (e.g. between horticulture, livestock, quarantine, product processing) • Balance between investment in collaborative R&D 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

7. Priority setting: top-down and bottom-up Problems amenable to research Problems that R&D may help to solve Shared expertise and interest Indonesian expertise and interest Australian expertise and interest

8. 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 R&D 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

9. The way we work… • Funding collaborative R&D – between Indonesia and Australian R&D 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

10. Fostering collaborations to improve project impact • Between the research agencies in agriculture, forestry and fisheries and the policy/implementation directorate–generals 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

11.  Current strategy ACIAR’s Indonesian Program has a strong emphasis on R&D 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

12. 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.

13. Indonesia – six program themes 1. Policy options for Indonesian agribusiness 2. Pest and diseasemanagement 3.Productivesmallholderaquaculture

14. Cocoa improvement, disease and pest management Better management of pests and diseases – reduced chemical use Supply chain management for bananas

15. 4. Sustainable utilisation and management of fisheries and forestry resources 5. Profitable agribusinesssystems for Eastern Indonesia 6. Technical cooperation to underpin post-Tsunami rehabilitation of agriculture and fisheries

16. Technical cooperation to underpin post-Tsunami rehabilitation Redevelopment of vegetable production, Pidie

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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 crop–livestock systemsinEastern 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

20. 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

21. Capacity development prioritiesalso for review and discussion at this meeting • Investment in institutional developmentin 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

22. 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)

23. 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 R&D policies and procedures • improved human resources and physical resources

24. 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’ technicalpeople • 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

25. 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