PORTALJABAR, DISTRICT. GARUT - Garut Regency Livestock and Fisheries Service (Diskannak), visited PT. Raffles Pacific Harvest, located in Sukawangi Village, Garut Regency, Wednesday (8/5/2024).

The visit was in order to monitor the function of animal health services and the use of livestock manure to provide beneficial value to the farming community in Garut Regency.

Head of the Garut Regency Diskannak Beni Yoga Gunasantika said, PT. Raffles is a company that processes or produces fresh milk to be supplied to several milk processing industries in Indonesia, such as PT. Indolakto, PT. Ultra Jaya Milk Industry and Tradi Company, Tbk, to PT. Heinz ABC Indonesia.

Beni said, based on the results of his visit, there were many innovations that had been implemented by PT Raffles, one of which was related to feed processing, where the company processed it independently, taking advantage of the local potential in Garut Regency. So, this has an impact on local economic growth in Garut Regency, especially corn farmers.

"So for making silage, they also recruit forage production or corn cuttings in Garut Regency and dry pellets, this is processed independently by PT Raffles to be used as the main feed for their dairy farm, that's right," said Beni in his statement, Thursday (9/5/2024).

Not only that, continued Beni, the partnership carried out by PT. Raffles with the people of Garut Regency were also carried out in the form of empowering local farmers, including fulfilling the need for organic fertilizer for corn farmers, who are partners of PT. Raffles.

"Where the manure produced from dairy farming is processed in such a way that it can be used by farmers in Garut Regency, in order to fulfill the corn that I mentioned earlier in the partnership process," he said.

Utilization of livestock manure processed by PT. Raffles into solid and liquid organic fertilizer, continued Beni, was also carried out in the context of handling environmental impacts caused by PT. Raffles, so that existing waste can be optimized as best as possible.

Not only that, he also explained that his party also had good partnerships with PT. Raffles, one of which is through monitoring animal health services.

"So of course this is related, we have supported it from an educational perspective, including providing several vaccines to prevent several diseases in dairy cow milk, so that later this will not have an impact on the spread of livestock in Garut Regency," he said.

The company provides animal health services, including assistance to medical personnel in the company, so that service standards for these animals can be implemented.

PT. Raffles has a land area of around 57 hectares, of which the effective land used is only around 25 hectares, so there is still potential for development, especially increasing the company's dairy cow population.

"So there is still some left for development, because the target for increasing their population is around 10 thousand, now it is still 4 thousand, so if you look at the existing land, this is still very possible," he said.

Beni said, with the 4 thousand cows, PT. Raffles is capable of producing 69 tons of fresh milk per day, to meet the needs of the milk processing industry in several of these industries.

Beni revealed that in carrying out his company's activities, PT. Raffles is staffed by 87-90 employees, where 90% of the number of employees are Garut people.

"So I think this is very beneficial for our workforce absorption, including increasing knowledge of the livestock sector, of course this will be very beneficial for the development of livestock in Garut Regency," he said. (Diskominfo Garut/UPI)