Organic Farming
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Indonesia is an archipelago country with more than 17.000 tropical islands, about 5000 kilometers east to west, between two oceans, the Pacific and the Indian, and between two continents, Asia and Australia. It has a total coastline of 81,000 kilometers, a landmass of 1,926,000 square kilometers, territorial waters of 3.17 million square kilometers, and an Exclusive Economic Zone of 2.7 million square kilometers. More than half of Indonesia’s land is forested and a significant portion is mountainous.
Extending along the
equator latitude 60 8’ North to 110 South, and longitude
940 45’ to 141o East, the climate is typically monsoon
with two distinctive seasonal changes every six months; dry season (June to
September) and rainy season (December to March). The fourth most populous
country in the world (215 million people in 2004) has a tropical environment
with daily temperature ranging between 23 to 31O C in the low plains
and 18 to 27 O C in the highland areas. However, it is the variable
rainfall pattern rather than temperature that determine the agricultural
systems, in general. Based on rainfall map (Agricultural Statistics 2000, MOA),
Indonesia has the rainfall at average of 2000 – 3500 mm per annum. The humidity
is relatively high, at average of 80 percent.
Land - Indonesia has
vast natural resources, which is the prime asset to be for agribusiness
development. The total of land area in
Indonesia in 1992 was about 192 million hectares. Up to 1998, about 66 million
hectares, or only 34 % has been used for agriculture and other purposes. Arable
land for food crop production reached around 29 million hectares of the 130
million hectares available3,
meanwhile there are 17 million hectares of idle lands4
that can be utilized for organic farming. It is apparent that food crop
production will dominate the organic agriculture, particularly in Jawa-Bali,
Sumatera, and West Papua.
Among the five major
islands, Java is the most densely populated but also the most fertile. On Java,
agricultural land area tends to decline, while outside Java is to increase. The
potentially useable land resource is still available especially in Kalimantan
and Sumatra, which have the biggest area of land in Indonesia.
The marine resources potential is high and generally under utilized, except in coastal and immediate offshore area. Ocean and sea fishery has a great potential to develop the pelagic as well as the demersal species, having each a potential of 3.2 and i.8 million ton per annum respectively for a sustainable exploitation. The development of sea fishery should be expanded to the Indian Ocean, Sulawesi Sea, Southeast Pacific Ocean, and South China Sea.
With a population of
over 215 million people that is still growing, there is no doubt that organic
agricultural products will have a market in the future in Indonesia. According
the owner of a a general supermarket in Bisnis
Indonesia, reporting in a daily newspaper (21/12/2004), there are currently approximately
15 million people in Indonesia consuming organic foods. Although trade of
organic products mushrooming in the big cities, but very few shops specialize
in for organic products.
The department of agriculture established an ambitious program, entitled Go Organic 2010, with the target to become one of the biggest exporters of organic commodities in the world. This three-stage program began in 2001. 2001 was categorized as the first step, whereby existing information on organic agriculture was consolidated. By 2005 a well-developed Infrastructure shall have been established, and by 2010 Indonesia aims to be one of the biggest organic agriculture producers in the world.
1. The key institutions (potentially) working in the organic
"field"
Organic agriculture
in Indonesia is still in the early stage of development, especially to public
at large.
Government related bodies
The ministry of
agriculture
The minister approved
pesticide and chemical fertilizers registration procedure, and a registration
procedure for organic fertilizers is also being developed. Plant protection and
quarantine procedure are also under administration of the minister, who also
promotes business opportunity.
Otoritas Kompeten Pangan Organik (OKPO Indonesia) or Competent Authority for Organic Food
under auspice Pusat Standarisasi dan
Akreditasi (PSA) or center for standaridization and accreditation of the Department
of Agriculture. Otoritas Kompeten Pangan Organik has established a task force for
Organic Food. The task Force Pangan Organik
consists of various elements: government agencies, the private sector,
technical experts, Badan Pengawasan Obat
dan Makanan (BPOM) or National Agency of Drug and Food Control, National
Standardization Agency of Indonesia, (NADFC), Badan Standardisasi Nasional (BSN), Komite Akreditasi Nasional (KAN) or National Accreditation
Committee, universities, practitioners, farmers/Producers and consumers.
http://organic-indonesia.deptan.go.id/ also: http://www.bsn.or.id/BSNSite2/english.htm
National Agency of
Drug and Food Control, with functions:
Legislation,
regulation and standardization;
Licensing and
certification of pharmaceutical industries based on Good Manufacturing
Practices;
Pre-market evaluation
of products;
Post-marketing
vigilance including product sampling and laboratory testing, inspection of
production and distribution facilities, investigation and law enforcement;
Pre-audit and
post-audit of product advertisement and promotion;
Research on drug and
food policies implementation;
Public communication,
information and education including public warning.
http://www.pom.go.id/profile/e_fungsi_badan_POM.asp
The ministry of fisheries
ad maritime
The ministry is preparing
a standard for sea-products, which is still ongoing, where I still not able to
judge what kind of standard.
The ministry of
health
The minister and the
minister of agriculture had made a joint decree in 1996 concerning maximum
residue limits on imported fruits and vegetables.
The ministry of trade
The minister has
issued licenses for both exporters and importer.
The department of
finance
The directorate
general for customs and excise controls import documentation is under the administration
of the minister.
The ministry of
forestry
The ministry has
issued a decree concerning the utilization of certain areas as buffer zone to
preserve community forests whilst utilizing non-timber forest products.
Badan Pengembangan Ekspor Nasional or the national agency for export development (NAFED).
The agency has role
promoting export of national products.
Bupati or head of
region (district level)
Bupati in several region have actively promote potential organic products, such as coffee, and other food crops, by visiting the Netherlands, also designing policy for organic agriculture development in their respective regions.
Major Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
Several
organic agriculture advocates with support from local NGOs organized formed a
network for on organic farming on September 10th, 1998.
This network’s members consists 40 NGOs, including several farmers groups as
members. Initiated by Riza Tjahjadi, organic farming advocates further
developed the network by organizing seminars, and meeting, which included
consultations with Malaysian organic growers and Greenet, an organic
agriculture in Thailand, to observe their business activities, and gain insight
on technical requirements for establishing a certification body. Founded in
April 2002 it was named as BioCert – and has 34 members as of the beginning of
2005.
Several top-level officers at the department of agriculture, in collaboration university researchers set up an association for organic farming, namely Masyarakat Pertanian Organik Indonesia (Maporindo) on February 1th, 2000.
A number of farmers
producing organic food have formed the Indonesian Organic Goods Producers
Association (APOI). APOI, as reported on August 7th, 2003, helps the
Indonesian government improve the quality and quantity of the country's
agricultural produce through organic farming, and hopefully, the environment.
The association consists of groups of producers of food crops, horticultural crops, plantation crops, fishery products, marine products, husbandry products, organic seedlings, organic fertilizers and bio-pesticides.
Certifiers
According Otoritas Kompeten Pangan Organik there currently
are no Indonesian accredited certifier. Some individuals have qualified as organic
inspectors due to international recognition. The national Association for
Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA) and SKAL International are among
international certifier that oprate in Indonesia.
Education/training institutes
There are several training
institutes for organic farming as listed in the directory
on organic farming
made by PSA (Pusat Standarisasi dan
Akreditasi) of the department of agriculture. Most training, however, is
not carried out on regular basis.
2.
The general characteristics of organic in Indonesia
an evaluation of information available
on government websites that should serve to promote the organic sector has
shown that much of the information is out of date or simply non-existent.”
General features of organic farming in Indonesia can be found at
http://organic-indonesia.deptan.go.id/mainMenu.asp
Indonesia
has not enacted any legislation for the legal protection of organic
agriculture. So far, national standards, namely the Standard Nasional Indonesia (SNI) Pangan Organik or Organic Food (SNI
01-6729-2002) was issed by Badan
Standardisasi Nasional (BSN), a national standard agency. SNI was adopted
the Codex Alimentarius Commission’s guideline for production, processing, labelling
and marketing of organically produced foods, with additional modifications in
the context of Indonesia. The SNI also
makes reference to references the IFOAM Basic Standards for Organic Production
and Processing, 2002, a law concerning standardization and proper labeling of
agricultural and forestry product in Japan, (JAS), the United States Department
of Agricultures’ National Organic Program (NOP), National Association of
Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA), and the EU.
The SNI were approved by the minister of agriculture at the end of 2002. Later, the minister in 2003 has also appointed
Pusat Standar dan Akreditasi (PSA) as
Competence Authority (Kompeten Pertanian
Organik, KPO). During December 2004 KPO-PSA
revised the SNI, with the participation of multi stakeholder or taskforce team
(mentioned above). Moreover the KPO-PSA has underwent training at least
twice in early 2004 which included farmer participation to make comparison of
the SNI with the IFOAM standard, and evaluate
financial management on organic farms.
According to KPO, a draft
standard on organic seafood has been prepared by the ministry on fisheries and
maritime.
Date: 21 July 1999
Number: PP No.69/1999
Description: Government Regulation of the
Republic of Indonesia No 69 year
1999 regarding Food Labeling and
Advertisement
In addition, there is
available HS (harmonization system) number for food crop, horticulture, animal
husbandry, and crop estates – in the Indonesia version.
Daftar Kode HS Komoditi Tanaman Pangan
Daftar Kode HS Komoditi Peternakan
http://agribisnis.deptan.go.id/
3. Trade issues
A case in North Sulawesi (2002)
Revoldi koleangan, an individual local market developer in
North Sulawesi (south of the Philippines) has initiated a kind of local market
development campaign. He has been supplying organic rice to around 12 local
supermarkets in Manado city North Sulawesi. His main problem is the over-supply
of rice, he can market around 200 tons, but production amounts to 400 tons per
harvest. On the other hand, the local supermarkets only have capacity to absorb
and additional 5 tons. Furthermore he lacks of reserve capital to pay the rice
farmers for harvest, which they demand.
(Tjahjadi,
R.V. filled form Questionnaire
to IFOAM’s "Local Market
for Sustainable Development." 12 Dec.2002)
In Jakarta, there are currently around 25 outlets selling organic
vegetables, which includes a shop, named Healthy Choice, a franchise of Taiwan's Yogi House that also has branches in
Singapore and Malaysia. Ninety percent
of the products on a small shop provided with restaurant (shop-and-resto), are
imported from the United States, Switzerland, New Zealand and Taiwan. Local
products including vegetables, rice, eggs, chicken and mushrooms, which are
obtained from organic farms in Bandung and Puncak of the West Jawa province,
but standardization quality remains a problem.
In a general supermarket in Jakarta that’s not far from Healthy Choice, sell
organic herbs in small packets with the brandname: “Doctor Rocket’s, Organic Herbs”
that are imported from Australia. Additionally,
they sell organic upland ricegrown by a cooperative in East Jawa.
Another method for promoting organic products was through
door-to-door sales of rice Medan, a capital of North Sumatera province. Using
three medical doctors to market the
rice, around 12 groups of farmers have successfully develop this tactic under
the auspice of PAN North Sumatera between April and December 2002. Beganning
with non-pesticide rice in 2002, and moving to three types
local fragance rice varieties, and around 15 tons sold
per month – all is non-branded and non-certified organic ride. Total area
cultivated for organic rice 26,000 hectares.
Export crops such as organically-grown coffee, cinamon
and other spices mostly handled by ForesTrade, although no data is available – with
exception a case in the North Sumatera province. Around 1,700 tons of coffee, 3 tons of dried
vanilla 3 tons are exported annually. All of these products are certified by both
NASAA (National Association of Sustainable Agriculture
Australia), and Skal. Today
ForesTrade is one of the largest importers of organic spices in the world. The
Dutch government recently launched a 1.1 million Euro matching fund project
that will allow ForesTrade to build a new state-of-the-art processing center in
Padang West Sumatra province.
Meanwhile NASAA, also reported
(2003) also
certified banana, in addition to the products mentioned above, and the oldest organic farm in Indonesia,
named Bina Sarana Bhakti located in West Jawa.
It
worthy to note, a project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, named
Program Distressed Areas Assistance in Flores Island and East Timor, also
exporting organic coffee and vanilla with amount 3,000 metric tons and 1 metric
ton vanilla per year,
to U.S., Germany, Norway, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand.
A
state-own tea plantation in West Jawa province, namely Perkebunan Rancabolang, Afdeling Kendeng, PTPN VIII Jabar
Kec. Pasirjambu, Ciwidey, with around 97,94 hectares large has been converted
conventional into organic production.
Cacao grown organically with polyculture system in North Sumatera province
will be exported to Switzerland by the biggest NGO Bitra Indonesia on Sumatera
island. Approximately 11 tons in the first quarter 2005.
4. What are the key constraints to adoption of organic farming
There are no apparent
constraints to adoption of organic farming, except psychological barrier or
internal factor of actors within the NGOs’ community. However, an ethical
dilemma exists between ideological choices and acting as traders of organic
products, which is often labeled “lubricating the oil of the capitalist machine”.
Another reason is a lack of confidence in supply management by most NGOs.
For export market, government
policies offer no shortcuts or incentives. Government procedures are business
as usual procedure, which includes illegal taxes and bribery. Certification also
increase production costs. Growth of the domestic market has reportedly skyrocketed
nearly around 600 percent compared to the export market in only a couple of years.
The illegal fees and bribery
hurt local farmers more than large-scale producers. For example, additional
charges imposed on local produce to be sold to other regions have clearly put
pressure on local farmers and, in turn, reduces the competitiveness of the
local products in both national and international markets.
A 2004 survey by the
Regional Autonomy Watch (KPPOD) for local competitiveness revealed that the
tendencies of local governments to impose discruptive fees and charges was a
key factor affecting the decision of potential investors to enter Indonesia.
This situation is worse since the “local mafia” also established illegal
charges on organic products.
---Recheck:
03Jan2005; 29Dec2004
1
Prepared for IFOAM and IFAD
2
Executive Director of BioTani Indonesia Foundation, National Coordinator PAN
Indonesia
3
Various data, compilation
4
Indonesia Menuju Pertanian Organik? http://organic-indonesia.deptan.go.id/psa/article.
10/5/2004