Jakarta. The government recently vowed not to import milk for the upcoming free school meal program.

Rather than importing dairy milk, Indonesia is planning to import live cows which will undergo an artificial insemination procedure. Artificial insemination is the process of manually inserting sperm cells from a bull into a cow to achieve pregnancy. This way, Indonesia can boost its milk production, according to Deputy Agriculture Minister Sudaryono.

However, the government is still working on the scheme, including bringing in cows that can adapt to Indonesia’s climate. 

“We are aware that the upcoming nutritious school meal program will have milk on its menu. But we will not be importing milk. We prefer bringing in live cows, and we are still preparing the scheme,” Sudaryono said in West Bandung over the weekend.

Sudaryono, however, admitted that Indonesia lacked enough of the so-called “recipient cows”, namely the cows get inseminated.

Sudaryno said: “Our artificial insemination agencies said that they needed more recipient cows to speed up the birth.”

President-Elect Prabowo Subianto is seeking to feed Indonesian students across the archipelago free school lunches in a bid to lower the country’s stunting rate. The budget for each portion is capped at Rp 15,000 ($0.92). Trial runs are currently underway in some Indonesian schools.

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