Sustainability of beef cattle farming production system in South Konawe Regency, Southeast Sulawesi

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze the sustainability of beef cattle farming in smallholder farms with semi-intensive and intensive production systems in the South Konawe Regency. It was conducted in West Ranomeeto and Konda sub-districts through Participatory Rural Appraisal with 55 farmers in the semi-intensive system and 50 farmers in the intensive system. The secondary data were obtained from literature, reports, and publications. The sustainability analysis was determined based on selected indi-cators in each aspect. The indicators of economic aspect were livestock income, feces utilization, sav-ings and insurance. The indicators of environmental aspect were concentration of E. coli, fecal coli-form, total coliform, nitrate, and Fe. The sindicators of social aspect were land ownership, livestock health, mortality, area of pen, and dry matter consumption. The analysis results showed that the total value of the economic, environmental, and social aspect indicators in semi-intensive and intensive pro-duction systems was -0.45 and +0.17; -1.15 and -3.85; -0.10 and +0.27, respectively. Meanwhile, the total indicator value in both production systems was -0.57 and -1.14. It can be concluded that both beef cattle production systems in South Konawe Regency carried out by smallholder farmers have not sus-tainable.