Get up and get Going: Successful Task Force Establishment for Dairy and Poultry Pilot Projects in Indonesia
In the SAS21 project, managed by MSM, the aim is on improving demand-driven vocational training and education in poultry and dairy in Indonesia. 10 Indonesian SMK’s will become gender sensitive, agribusiness driven and certified with help of the project.
One of the activities taken by SAS21 are pilot projects in dairy and poultry in Indonesia which are now gaining traction. For the dairy sector, a concept for an innovative app helping farmers reliably record milk quality, prices and expenses as well as providing access to teaching support is being developed. In poultry, a range of online teaching curricula with a focus on closed house chicken farming are planned, with the aim of enhancing the skills of students and farmers alike.
A fruitful task force meeting between government academia and industry
On Wednesday February 17th, the task force members of both projects convened for the first time. In an online environment, government representatives from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education and the Ministry of Agriculture, academics from IPB University, SMKs and Polytechnique’s, Aeres University of Applied Science, and MSM, as well as business practitioners from Frisian Flag and PT Charoen joined a lively and fruitful discussion.
In their role as task force members, participants belong to an operational working group responsible for deliberating and putting into practice feasible and practically viable ideas related to the pilot projects. By bringing together a diverse task force, the goal of the initial meeting was to elicit feedback on what can be improved or changed in the projects’ design to ensure that both projects hit the ground running.
Following a well-received introduction by SY IPB dean Dr. Ir. Arief Daryanto and a presentation by Dr. Huub Mudde explaining the outstanding role of the task forces for operationalizing the pilot projects, participants selected into the project task forces according to their area of expertise. In break-out rooms, Yuni Resti (responsible for the dairy pilot project) and Pria Sembada (responsible for the poultry pilot project) updated participants in their group on current progress, and a rich discussion ensued.
During the meeting, key topics were covered including an assessment of each project’s contribution to upgrading the value chain and specifying who the main target group is. Discussions also revolved around aspects such as who to involve in which role, as well as possible technical challenges that might arise during the implementation phase. Enrichening the debate, several participants shared valuable experiences and lessons from previous projects aiming to enhance the agricultural value chain.
Beyond this fruitful exchange of inspirations, the meeting concluded with a strong commitment from all participants to regularly update each other, establish working WhatsApp groups and continue more technical discussions in future meetings.
About SAS21
The project is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and aims to improve demand-driven vocational training and education in poultry and dairy in Indonesia. The project is a cooperation between MSM, the Vocational School of IPB University and the Aeres Group.
*The photo was taken in 2019 before Covid-19.
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