Indonesia

Indonesia is ACIAR's largest partner due to the country's proximity and strategic importance to Australia and the need to support reduction of the large number of its population who live in poverty. ACIAR's program addresses human capacity constraints in adaptive research and extension in a system with strong regional autonomy, challenges of natural resource governance, and the need for Indonesian agriculture, forestry and fisheries to better link with major domestic and international markets. A challenge for ACIAR and its partner agencies in Indonesia is to secure more practical outcomes for farming communities from the considerable research investment. Several current projects focus on the extension of results from ACIAR projects, while the SADI, and broader linkages with other Indonesian Government programs and those supported by AusAID and other donors provide additional avenues for greater market and community input to the planning and use of research results.

ACIAR's Indonesia program has a strong focus on partnership, using Indonesian systems for the delivery of programs and projects. We work with Indonesian partners to: involve end users during the development of projects; closely involve researchers in project activities at the farming community level; and integrate researchers and policymakers where appropriate. ACIAR will increase its emphasis on communicating the outcomes of ACIAR projects and linking with major Indonesian Government, donor and industry programs. Formal linkages with World
Bank programs will continue.

The regional balance of investments is influenced by Indonesian requests for assistance, Australian expertise and alignment with the overall Australian aid program. Continued collaboration with R&D providers and policymakers in Java and western Sumatra is important. This is especially the case for agricultural policy research, biosecurity collaboration, and horticultural and aquaculture research. Indonesia is in a strategic position for Australia with respect to trans-boundary plant and animal diseases, given its close proximity. The program, supported under the Australia-Indonesia partnership includes activities in East and West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi and South-East Sulawesi provinces under both SADI and the main ACIAR program. In addition, there is an increased emphasis on Papua and West Papua, with eastern Indonesia remaining a high priority for ACIAR. In response to the December 2004 tsunami event, ACIAR commenced a number of projects in affected communities in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. Engagement in Aceh has now evolved to provide support for increasing farmer incomes from agriculture and aquaculture over the medium term.

ACIAR will encourage linkages between the research agencies in agriculture, forestry and fisheries and the policy/implementation directorate-generals in the same ministries, where appropriate, as well as with other ministries such as the Ministry of Trade. ACIAR will support linkages between the research capacity of institutions in Java and Sumatra and eastern Indonesian adaptive research agencies and planning authorities. In addition, there will be a greater involvement of private sector and other non-government partners in the program.

The importance of increased agricultural productivity in Indonesia has been further underlined in the current global food security debate. ACIAR commenced two policy analyses in 2008-09 to assist in the assessment and development of economy-wide and industry-specific policy options to supplement research results through suitable economic and social initiatives. These projects will enhance the scope for farm-level market access opportunities and adjustment to current regional and global agricultural challenges. In the crops sector the emphasis is on productivity, pest and disease management, postharvest handling and marketing of major fruits (banana, citrus, mango and mangosteen) and vegetables (potato, brassica, chillies), and key tree crops such as cocoa and coffee. Increased cash incomes from commercial crops such as horticultural and tree crops contribute to food security through increasing the ability of farming families to purchase food. Under the ACIAR-managed component of SADI, work on improving the productivity and marketing of field crops including rice, maize, soy and mungbean and peanut is carried out.

Increasingly, the impediments to effective disease control are the regulatory and policy environments, particularly development of the cooperation needed to undertake regional initiatives. Animal health projects will develop and test surveillance systems that are applicable for livestock diseases, especially those of current or potential infectivity to humans. Assistance in the development of rapid and appropriate responses once diseases are detected will also be a focus. Targeted research will provide the knowledge base to use tools such as vaccines most effectively. Provincial and central governments will apply the knowledge gained to implement wider control programs. Endemic livestock
diseases will also be targeted where there are clear production losses affecting incomes, and a clearly defined pathway to adoption of research results. ACIAR also supports a number of research activities to underpin the Australian aid program's commitment to reduce the threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Indonesia and elsewhere in the region. Fisheries projects have had significant impacts, including in the management of shrimp diseases; rehabilitation of degraded or unproductive shrimp ponds on acid sulfate soils; mariculture of high-value fish and crustaceans; a greater awareness and understanding of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; and monitoring and harmonising of management of shared fish stocks. ACIAR will continue to maintain a large fisheries program in Indonesia and seek opportunities for Australia-Indonesia collaboration on efforts to address IUU fishing. In both fisheries and forestry programs there will be an increased emphasis on balancing environmental and employment issues at the regional level.

In forestry ACIAR will initiate design of further work on community-based agroforestry systems for income generation in eastern Indonesia and continue an integrated program on improvement of the sustainability and value capture from major plantation species, including acacia and teak in both eastern and western Indonesia. In keeping with the increased emphasis on collaboration on forests and climate change in Indonesia, researchers will build on the previous program that assessed the economic potential of land-use change and forestry for carbon sequestration and poverty reduction, and on policy research to promote sustainable forest management.

Indonesia is an important partner in projects delivered in conjunction with the International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs), namely the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the International Potato Center (CIP) and the Asian Vegetable R&D Center (AVRDC).