Murdah has changed his mind about raising cattle in Indonesia Credit:Amilia Rosa However cattle have often been in poor condition, especially during the dry season, because they received insufficient and poor quality feed. There were just 16 million slaughter cattle in the domestic herd in 2016 according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, providing only a fraction of the beef demanded by Indonesia's burgeoning middle class. But a partnership between Indonesian and Australian research institutes hopes to increase smallholder farmers' cattle productivity by improving the cows' nutrition. In 2011, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research began funding a $1.77 million cattle feeding research project in eastern Indonesia. Farmers were given seed to plant several tree varieties - called forage tree legumes - which can be grown either in small plots or on the ridges between rice paddies. Forage tree legumes have been used successfully as cattle fodder by thousands of graziers in Australia - more than 200,000 hectares of the species leucaena have been planted in Queensland to produce quality "grass-fed" beef. Not easy

Tanda Panjaitan, a researcher from the farming technology bureau of Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry, said leucaena (known locally as lamtoro) had also been introduced in Indonesia in the 1980s during the Suharto era. Muin is a corn farmer from Indonesia. Credit:Amilia Rosa "But the project then failed when it was ruined by the insect pest kutu loncat (leucaena psyllid)," Dr Panjaitan says. "They tried other plants to replace it after that but none was successful. After that, people just forgot about it and went back to what they were used to – grass." Dr Panjaitan says the cattle fattening project introduced a variety of leucaena resistant to leucaena psyllid. But the farmers had to be re-educated about the benefits of using forage tree legumes as fodder. "It wasn't easy, they simply didn't believe us," he said. Legume trees are part of a drive to fatten Indonesian cattle Credit:Amilia Rosa

Muin, a corn farmer from Senayan village in West Sumbawa, admits to being sceptical. "I only joined in 2013, I had doubts about it," he said. "A few years ago we were told to plant rumput gajah (elephant grass) but it was useless, so we stopped it all. When I was told about lamtoro, I was still scarred from the elephant grass." Legume trees are part of a drive to fatten Indonesian cattle Credit:Amilia Rosa When Muin introduced the forage tree legume as fodder he owned nine cows and cared for six others (splitting the profit with the owner). "I planted six hectares with lamtoro, six hectares of the worst land I own. To plant lamtoro doesn't require any of the productive land I own to grow corn." Now Muin owns 27 cows.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said the project aimed to help villagers. Credit:MICK TSIKAS "I can earn more than 30 million rupiah ($3000) a year - that's more than what I earn from planting corn," he says. "I plan on expanding soon. I will plant more lamtoro so I can feed more cows. Now I regret joining late, I wish I could turn back time to a younger me and join earlier so I can care for more cows." Unanticipated benefits Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the project, which has been trialled in 30 villages, "aims to improve incomes and food security for low-income small landholders in Indonesia". It has demonstrated that growing and feeding leucaena can halve the amount of labour needed to look after cattle and double live weight gains. Legume trees are part of a drive to fatten Indonesian cattle Credit:Amilia Rosa

There have also been other unanticipated benefits. In North Lombok, villagers have moved their cows from next to their homes, where they would typically graze, into communal barns. Here, the farmers attend lessons on nutrition for their cows. The barns have also solved the villages' cow dung dilemma. Country program manager for the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research, Dr Peter Horne, says villagers had previously complained they were too embarrassed to have friends visit their village because of the cow manure everywhere. "An unexpected outcome of keeping the cattle together in one place is that, not only do the farmers learn improved methods of raising cattle from each other but now the manure is located in one place," he says. The once loathed cow dung has become a communal asset, which the cattle farmers now sell to vegetable growers in neighbouring villages. Another unexpected benefit came through marketing. Farmers in Lombok typically did not sell their own cows, handing them over to a middleman at the market gate.

"There was little transparency and the farmers couldn't participate in negotiations," Dr Horne says. Great results However now the cattle are being held in communal barns, traders now come to the villages and buy directly from the farmers. "This is an outstanding and unexpected positive result," Dr Horne says. "It wouldn't have mattered for the farmers if they were able to improve productivity unless they could make a profit from it." Dr Horne says the next step is to increase the scale of the program, rolling it out across Sumbawa and even South Kalimantan. He acknowledges the model developed in North Lombok cannot be "photocopied" but believes the principles can be adapted to different conditions.

Australia Indonesia Business Council president Debnath Guharoy says that for 30 years Indonesia has pleaded with Australia to assist it with developing the local cattle industry. "The more it happens, the better for the (bilateral) relationship," he says. "I would like to see Australian companies in the cattle business invest locally." Murdah, the motorbike taxi driver who was so resistant to cows, now owns four to six every season. He estimates prior to the cattle fattening project he could have earned 3 million rupiah ($300) every two years for a calf - if it survived. Now he says the figure is more like 750,000 to 1.5 million rupiah ($75 to $150) every month. He works one to two hours every morning feeding the forage tree legumes to his cows and still drives a motorcycle taxi on the side. Loading

"Six years on since 2011 my family is healthier, we have a cleaner house, we can now have company at the house," Murdah says. "None of the cows or calves died, I fully paid off my bike, I have savings, I can fix the house." Follow Jewel Topsfield on Facebook