VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo and Australian Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry, Murray Watt, discussed cooperation between the two neighboring countries , especially in agriculture and animal husbandry, including the handling of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

The two ministers discussed the cooperation during a meeting held at the Ministry of Agriculture's office in Jakarta on Thursday.

"We discussed many things, (such as) global issues, challenges of climate change, and the needs of two countries in securing agriculture in Indonesia and Australia," Minister Limpo informed here on Thursday.

According to the minister, one of the issues discussed was FMD. As a country that is geographically close to Indonesia, Australia is paying special attention to the issue.

Minister Watt said that the Australian government is preparing to send 1 million FMD vaccines to Indonesia in August.

"We have prepared 1 million FMD vaccines. We will send them to Indonesia in August 2022," he added.

As part of the cooperation, besides vaccines, the Australian government will also provide assistance in the form of 500 thousand Australian dollars for the training of medical personnel for handling FMD.

"I know that the Indonesian government is very concerned about the spread of FMD, and we also share the same concern for this issue," Minister Watt remarked.

The two ministers also discussed two other important points. The first concerned the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the Indonesian and Australian governments in the field of agriculture and animal husbandry.

The second concerned the readiness of Australia and Indonesia to deal with food shortages caused by climate change.

To curb the spread of FMD in Indonesia, the Ministry of Agriculture rolled out a vaccination program for livestock from Sidoarjo district, East Java, on June 14, 2022.

According to data provided by the FMD Task Force, as many as 458,477 heads of cattle have received the FMD vaccine as of Thursday. (Antaranews)