Swadayaonline.com – The Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) through the Directorate General of Animal Husbandry and Animal Health (Ditjen PKH) welcomes and continues to encourage triple helix collaboration between researchers, government and the business world to produce applicable and solution-oriented innovations according to industry needs and to be able to grow competitiveness, including in the feed industry which is the backbone of providing animal protein for the people of Indonesia.
In a welcoming speech at the panel discussion “Reviewing the Innovation of Processed Palm Kernel Meal (Palmofeed) as an Alternative Feed Source of Energy and Protein” at the Santika Hotel Bogor, the Secretary of the Director General of PKH who is also the Acting Director of Feed, drh. Makmun, M.Sc appreciated the initiative of IPB University and PT. Buana Karya Noveltindo which has conducted ongoing research to obtain Palm Kernel Meal (PKM) with good quality and is worthy of being a functional feed ingredient as a source of energy and protein.
“The Directorate General of PKH hopes that the synergy between the government and research institutions with business actors can continue to be built and become closer to mutually support the process of providing quality local feed ingredients specifically and the development of animal husbandry and animal health in general,” explained Makmun.
In producing poultry feed, feed ingredients are the largest cost component, reaching 85% of the total production cost. This is one of the problems in providing competitive poultry feed, namely that Indonesia still has a dependence on imported feed ingredients of around 35%, especially imported protein sources such as soybean meal, corn gluten meal, meat bone meal and premix. This dependence on imported feed ingredients will create an aspect of uncertainty. “Therefore, we must have a strategy and policy to minimize the impact of this uncertainty,” added Makmun.
Import data of Plant-Originated Feed Ingredients (BPAT) from 2015-2020, shows that the relative volume of imports of protein-source feed ingredients increased in 2020 to 84% from 57.30% in 2015 or increased by 26.7% in 5 years. As for energy sources, the development of local corn has succeeded in reducing dependence on imported energy-source feed ingredients. In Indonesia, corn is the second main food commodity after rice. The feed industry is one of the largest users of corn in Indonesia, along with the growth in feed production.
The dynamics in the poultry sector that have occurred recently have highlighted the soaring prices of several main poultry feed ingredients. As we know, corn and soybean meal are the main energy and protein source feed ingredients in poultry feed formulations. In fact, around 75% of the composition of poultry feed ingredients consists of these two ingredients. The increase in domestic corn prices in the first quarter of 2021, accompanied by the increase in soybean meal prices since August 2020, has driven up domestic feed prices.
Relying on imported feed ingredients to substitute corn also faces obstacles because international corn and wheat prices have recently increased very sharply. Therefore, optimizing the use of locally-based feed ingredients is a necessity.
For information, Indonesia is the largest palm oil producer in the world with an estimated planting area of 14.99 million hectares. From this area, it is estimated that it will produce Crude Palm Oil (CPO) of 49.12 million tons and palm kernel of 9.82 million tons.
The potential of this vast palm oil area can actually be optimized for the development of the livestock sub-sector in Indonesia. For ruminants, for example, the development of a cattle-palm oil integration system can be a model in providing beef for Indonesia, which is currently not completely free from dependence on imported meat and cattle.
For the provision of feed for ruminants and poultry, palm oil has great potential in producing palm kernel meal (PKM). With a palm kernel production of 9.8 million tons, Indonesia has the potential to produce PKM of 4.42 million tons/year. PKM is a high-fiber feed material of 14-27.7% with a moderate protein quality of 13.5-19.4%. Therefore, PKM is suitable for ruminant livestock feed.
In addition to ruminant livestock feed, PKM can also be used in the poultry feed industry even though it has limiting factors, namely high shell contaminants and crude fiber. However, with a touch of technology and innovation, increasing synergy between the government, universities/research institutions and business actors, these problems can be overcome. “The Directorate General of PKH hopes that in the future PKM innovation will make functional feed materials a source of superior energy and protein in Indonesia so that they can substitute sources of energy and protein from imports,” concluded Makmun.