Fadjar Sumping Tjatur Rasa, Director of Animal Health at the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), gather with poultry farmers in Blitar at the side line of poultry assessment result socialization

Approximately 100 poultry farmers and related officials were present in Blitar Regency to participate in the socialization of poultry farm assessment results, conducted by the Blitar Department of Livestock and Fisheries, the East Java Provincial Department of Livestock, the Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health Services (DGLAHS) and FAO ECTAD Indonesia. This socialization is part of government intervention activities to help farmers to improve poultry health, increase productivity and poultry farm profits.

These activities have been going on since March 2018, beginning with a meeting of poultry entrepreneurs to explore the problems and challenges faced by farmers in Blitar. The DGLAHS had previously developed a layer chicken farm assessment and scoring system, to certify farms as free from Avian Influenza (AI) in a specific area or compartment. This scoring system was piloted in 111 farms in 12 sub-districts in Blitar Regency, in an effort to reduce the threat of AI in Indonesia.

"While in general, animal disease control in large-scale poultry farms has already been well conducted, there’s definitely a need to improve biosecurity practices," stressed Erry Setyawan, FAO National Technical Adviser.

Through this event, farmers received training on farm biosecurity, vaccination practices and poultry flock management. Yos, a farmer in Ponggok Subdistrict shared his experiences, "Knowledge about these topics is very important for us farmers, I hope this kind of activity can be carried out regularly," he said.

In response to egg drop syndrome, which has occurred increasingly in almost all production centers, including Blitar Regency, Fadjar Sumping Tjatur Rasa, Director of Animal Health at the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), said that the MoA had asked all stakeholders to identify the root causes and solutions of decreased egg production. He added that a comprehensive and integrated response is needed across all poultry stakeholders.

"Blitar is a barometer of the egg price in Indonesia, thus making the area very important," said Arif Wicaksono, Head of the Sub-directorate of Animal Disease Control, Directorate of Animal Health, Ministry of Agriculture.

Arif also said that following this meeting, farmers are expected to understand better the poultry disease and farm management problems of their chicken farms, especially related to biosecurity practices, which still need to be improved. He stressed for example, the need to enforce movement control and perimeter fencing of chicken farms to improve biosecurity, which is rarely applied. Likewise, there is little division between clean and dirty areas (3-zone biosecurity), nor adequate farm cleaning and disinfection. Improvement of farm biosecurity will improve poultry health and stabilize egg production.