I am Dr. Caroline Wiwie, I graduated from James Cook University, Australia, but now I live in Indonesia. My major is reproductive biotechnologies.

I would like to give you my views about reproductive technologies in the livestock sector. First of all, as we can see easily, there is a big difference in the livestock sector between Australia and Indonesia, and the main problem is income per capita: for Indonesian people it is too low if we compare with Australian. Starting from this point of view, we cannot expect too much in this minimum condition in Indonesia. For example, in Indonesia, farmers usually only have a few head of cattle (one to three) and keep them near their little houses and the same thing with goats and sheep, they only have a few head, they keep their animals as money saved for future use, so it is so hard to improve this condition unless the government help them.

Talking about the government, again we would come across many problems, as I had experience as a consultant for the livestock sector for some projects of Asian Development Bank (ADB) and also World Bank projects, one of my team's proposals was accepted by ADB and funded about US $ 35 million (in 1994), but I don't think this project was well run. The problems are too many, no professionalism, no discipline, etc.

I think as a developing country, Indonesia for the time being only needs to multiply the livestock population with good quality of animals through reproductive biotechnologies, such as embryo transfer and artificial insemination as a basic need. If budget is provided for this project, there should be professionals who handle everything, otherwise it would be a waste of everything.

I think I'll stop my comments here and am happy for your response.

Caroline Wiwie, Indonesia
wcaroline@dnet.net.id

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to biotech-room3@mailserv.fao.org For further information on the Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture see http://www.fao.org/biotech/forum.asp ]