Case Studies on Transferring Technologies of Agribusiness-scale Production and Marketing of Asparagus and Mushrooms to Indonesia

Abstract

Agriculture is the main stay and the largest sector of Indonesia’s economy. Efforts have been made by the government of Indonesia to enhance food production to feed ever-increasing population in the country. Taiwan has enjoyed a high agricultural productivity through developed modern agricultural technologies in recent years. The transfer of Taiwan experienced agricultural technologies to the needy nations, becomes an important program of international technical cooperation of the ROC on Taiwan in the past 40 years. At the request of the Indonesian government, Taiwan dispatched the Agricultural Technical Missions to Surabaya and Yogykata Provinces to help boost agricultural production in May 1976. Taiwan-assisted production of food crops and vegetables (rice, soybeans, and corn) boosted the Indonesian economy. In July 1995, Dr. Paul Min-hsien Sun, Chairman of the ROC Council of Agriculture, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Dr. Sjahrifudin Baharsjah, Indonesian Minister of Agriculture for a new phase of agricultural cooperation between the ROC on Taiwan and Indonesia. Taiwan agreed to transfer agribusiness-related knowledge and technology to the farmers in rural communities, and promote joint investment in the production, processing, and marketing of agricultural commodities. Based on the MOU, the ROC Agricultural Technical Mission carried out cooperative projects on asparagus and mushroom production in Central Java Province. Mr. Kung-Chu Wu, an asparagus expert from Taiwan, organized the farmers in Boloyali County into six asparagus production and marketing teams. The farmers earned US$ 4,982/year from one hectare of land on which asparagus had been harvested. A marketing supervision unit has been established to help in selling asparagus since that time.With the help of Professor Jack J. C. Hsieh of National Chung-Hsing University, the Indo Evergreen Company was established in the form of a joint venture project by a private joint Taiwanese/Indonesian investment. Mushroom-growing technology has been transferred to Indonesia from Taiwan and Belgium. Today Indo Evergreen Company produces 30 metric tones of processed mushroom everyday, of which, 95% is exported to North America and Japan, and 5 % is sold in Indonesia domestic market. Mr. Yeh-hsuen Yu, a mushroom expert from National Taiwan University, transferred the business-scale production technology for wood ear mushroom. The project was carried out in Sleman County, Yogykata Province, and Indonesia. Mr. Yu established four ear mushroom production processes: (1) production of seed fungus growing bottles, (2) production of ear mushroom fungus inoculated plastic bags, (3) Supply of plastic bags to the growers, and (4) marketing of dried ear mushrooms through Farmer¡¦s Cooperatives. The farmers earned a net profit of US$ 186,606 from annual harvest of the wood-ear mushrooms. Plastic bag processing station earned a total of US$ 48,000/year, while seed fungus propagation station earned US$ 7,333/year. The amount of income from Marketing through Farmer¡¦s Cooperatives totaled US$ 112,000/year. The total output of the project amounted US$ 354,000/year. These are successful stories of technology transfer through international technical cooperation, jointly executed by various parties in Taiwan and Indonesia.