The Feed Bank: Farmer-Group Based Solution for Subsistence Beef-Cattle Farming In East Java Indonesia

Abstract

Feed Bank was the beef-cattle feed production unit that established by farmer group. Feed Bank was the solution of problem in accessing nutritious feed for beef-cattle in subsistence farmer. Beef-cattle farmer in Indonesia doesn’t have access to nutritious feed for beef-cattle because lacks of capital, tool and machine for processing beef-cattle feed, and labor. Through farmer group, farmer could unite the existing capital and collectively providing beef-cattle feed from local resource efficiently and sustainably. The concept of Feed Bank could be applied as intensification program for subsistence beef-cattle farming. So that, productivity of beef-cattle farming could be enhanced and thus, providing market’s need for beef-cattle’s meat. This research aimed to know the implementation of Feed Bank concept in subsistence beef-cattle farming. This research was held to group farmer which has been implementing Feed Bank concept. The result showed that Feed Bank was able to provide beef-cattle feed effectively, efficiently and sustainably. In the end, the Feed Bank also changing the farming system from subsistence farming into the agribusiness-based farming. Keywords