Indigenous Bali Cattle: The Best Suited Cattle Breed for Sustainable Small Farms in Indonesia

Indonesia has a total population of around 206 million with 4.5 million households keeping livestock. About half of the cattle farmers are small farmers. The Indonesian archipelago is a land area of 1.8 million km consisting of over 13,000 islands stretching from the Western tip of Sumatra to the Eastern border of Papua. The largest island, Kalimantan (Borneo), covers 28% of the total land area. Java, with only 6 – 7% of the total land area, is inhabited by around 60% of the total population and is the most densely populated island. The agro-ecological zones vary from the humid coastal wetland swamps in Sumatra, Java, South Sulawesi and Bali, to the sub-humid and semiarid dry land in the eastern part of Java, Sulawesi and most of the Nusa Tenggara islands. There is a wetter to a drier climate from the west to the east. Approximately 60% of the archipelago has about 7 – 9 consecutive months of rain in the wet season and less than two months with no rain in the dry season. The eastern islands have the lowest rainfall with the dry season varying from 3 to 8 months. The average temperature stays within a constant range differing in only a few degrees centigrade between the hot and cool months. The farming systems are regulated more by rainfall than temperature. The plantations and food crop areas are located primarily in the western wetter regions. Extensive marginal grasslands are in the drier eastern islands. Rain forest areas are found in Sumatera, Kalimantan and Papua, with limited areas on Java, Madura, Bali and Sulawesi. An alarming deforestation process is still occurring caused the illegal logging activities.