A UN Joint project, consisting of FAO, ILO and UNDP was established in Mentawai in mid 2012. FAO helped the refugees affected by the 2010 tsunami by providing them with cattle as a livelihood support in the new location.

Most of the refugees from North Pagai and South Pagai originated from coastal villages and were relocated further inland. Because of this, the villagers had to change their livelihoods from fishing to farming.

In March 2013, FAO provided 9 cattles to refugees in 3 locations. When the cattles were introduced, many members of the community, especially children, didn't know what they were, since they had never seen cattle before. One child asked 'why is the goat given to us so big?'

The FAO recovery team then built a cattle pen in each of the three locations, and encouraged the people to form a cattle-farming group. FAO trained the farmers group how to raise cattle and thought them how to prevent cattle diseases. Some of the group members weren't really interested in rearing cattle, as they needed to give them food and water every day. Despite this, FAO continued to provide training and assistance for the farmer group by visiting them every month, while also supporting them in their other farming work like vegetable and perennial fruits growing.

The FAO team taught them to bring the cattle to their work place and to tether them near an area with plenty of grass. Every 3-4 hours, the cattle moved to other locations to get more grass; water was given 3 times a day. In the first 10 months, only 2 members from each intervention area were actively raising the cattle and the rest were not active.

People's motivation to raise cattle increased when the cows started giving birth. The first calf was born in South Pagai on 7th November 2013; the second calf was born on 29th January 2014 and the third one on 12th March 2014. Thereafter, many of the refugees chose to raise cattle understanding that it was easy to feed them while the price of beef was high.

The beef price in Padang, the provincial capital, reached IDR 90,000-100,000/Kg. In Mentawai District, almost all food products were imported from Padang, such as vegetables, eggs, beef and rice. Cattle rearing and beef production had become a new source of income for the rural people. Demand for cattle increased, and FAO provided more cattle, 10 for each location (1 bull and 9 cows). Combined with the cattle provided during the first phase, the total number of cattle became 13 per location (10 cows and 3 bulls) or 39 for 3 locations (30 cows and 9 bulls).

FAO also built a total of 6 new cattle pens. The cows were rotated to other farmers after two years to leverage the impact of the scheme. The FAO pilot project became a model for cattle rearing and beef production in Mentawai District. The cow manure from the pens was gathered and turned into organic fertilizer.

Furthermore, FAO also provided joint training on organic fertilizer production, vegetable and taro cultivation, and the production of botanical pesticide. FAO furthermore supported chilli and tomato cultivation using organic fertilizer produced by the cattle enterprise. The income from selling chillies helped to pay for school tuition fees and for daily household expenditures.

FAO also supported other programmes, such as improved practices for cocoa cultivation. In collaboration with the Coffee and Cocoa Research Center (BPKK) in Jember, FAO brought in BPKK experts in 2012 and 2013 to train cocoa farmers. As a result, some farmers developed the expertise to expand their cocoa production using grafting techniques. Mr Ferdinand, who lives in Maurao village, South Pagai, was successful in cultivating a superior cocoa variety, which could produce 800 cocoa seeds per year.

Published: March, 2016
Project: Mentawai Islands Livelihoods Recovery Programme (UNJP/INS/083/UNJ)