"The government will face difficulties to realize its target set several years ago to achieve cattle self-sufficiency by 2014," Anton Sihombing, a member of the House Commission IV on agriculture, said here on Wednesday.
Speaking in a discussion on cow self-sufficiency in Indonesia, Anton said that one of the requirements to achieve self-sufficiency in cow`s meat was the ability of domestic farmers to become cow and meat producers at home.
"Indonesia is until now still a big importer of meat and slaughter cattle," the legislator said.
He said t the government should issue a regulation to enable local breeders to sell their cattle at home and importers to import female and young cows to be reared at home. They should buy local breeders` cattle before they are allowed to import the sane.
He said it was predicted that in 2012 Indonesia`s meat imports would reach 100,000 tons and slaughter cow imports 500 thousand heads. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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