Food Providing Agriculture

The main food providing crops in Asmat district are cassava with the plantation area of 27.50 hectares in 2007 and the harvesting area of 21.75 hectares and the annual production capacity of 58.25 tons. Additionally, there are various kinds of edible tubers with the plantation area of 16.70 hectares. The production center of the cassava is in the sub-district Pantai Kasurai, Favit and Suator.

The commodity of fruits includes banana with the annual production capacity of 129.90 tons, mango with the annual production capacity of 11.20 tons and rambutan (Niphelium) or lychee with the annual production capacity of 5.20 tons.

Plantation

The whole areas of plantation in Asmat district are 150,000 hectares and 80% of the areas or 120,000 hectares represents coconuts plantation and the remaining 30 hectares is cocoa plantation that is situated in Sawa Erma sub-district. The coconut production in 2007 was 50.300 kg, consisting of 33.500 kg from Sawa Erma sub-district (66.60%) and the remaining 40% is distributed in other six sub-districts.

Animal Husbandry

The population of sheep at the end of 2007 in Asmat district was 2,451sheeps, while the population of pig was 633 pigs. The production of pork is 18,346 kg, while that of sheep meat is 384 kg. The poultry is limited to ducks and chickens. The population of chicken at the end of 2007 was 4,574 chickens, while that of duck was 428 ducks. The production of chicken eggs was 7,840 kg and duck eggs was 255.50 kg.

Fishery

There is a huge fishery potential in Asmat district as indicated by the data of Agriculture Agency. The production of various species kinds of fish is 61.12 tons or IDR 451.45 billions. The fishing boats are of various kinds from 8,012 traditional boats to motorized boats of 5 GT to 5-10 GT of weight. The number of fish breeders/fishermen is approximately 26,517 households, consisting of full time fishermen, primary part time fishermen and secondary part time fishermen.

Forestry

The production forest area of Asmat district in 2007 was 2,785,600 hectares and the actual production forest area was 1,464,000 hectares. The production of logs of the companies with forest exploitation right (HPH) in 2007 was nil because there was not any company with the forest exploitation right that operated. The volume of sawed timbers was only 94 m³. The production of the accompanying forest products such as eaglewood and kemedangan wood also decreased. The production of the kemedangan wood in 2007 was only 130,000 kg, while the production of gambier was 5,000 kg. Though the production of the timbers by the companies with the forest exploitation right (HPH) has been stopped, there is still individual felling of trees by the villagers or by the members of community cooperatives and it is difficult to collect the data of such felling of trees.

Industrial Affairs

The industry sector of Asmat district has not been optimally developed. Therefore, it is necessary to make use of the natural resources by considering the environmental preservation, the strengthening of the existing industrial structure and the creation of new economic centers that are able to provide the local people with employment. Subsequently, the development of the industry sector is expected to accelerate the development of local human resources into high quality ones. It is also expected that the development of the sector is able to establish partnerships and to invite investors who are willing to make an investment to produce market oriented products. Both formal and non-formal small industries in the district have not grown as expected, though the existing home industry has grown very well. It is expected that the government provides the industry sector with the support in the forms of industrial building programs and directives in increasing the production of the existing home industry and of course in improving the quality of the resulting products. The sector is also expected to be able to provide the local people with sufficient employment in order to lessen the unemployment that is one of the problems facing the government of the district in the implementation of its development programs.

Electricity

The power produced by PT PLN operating in the sub-districts Agats and Atsy is 185,030 kwh. The sold power is 210.403 kwh, while the remaining power is 25,373 kwh. There are 347 subscribers in the sub-district Agas and 207 subscribers in the sub-district Asy. The whole installed kva is 632.25 kva with the installed power is 460 kw. There are 7 units of power generating machines and 4 of them operate in the district Agats and 3 of them operate in the sub-district Atsy.

Tourism

The tourism potentials of Asmat district are distributed in some sub-districts, including traditional artistic carvings, traditional dances and traditional festivities, national and local gardens in which natural flora and fauna may be found. The tourism sector is developed by building programs of the existing culture and arts and by preserving the virgin natural environment of the national and local gardens and also the protected forests. Additionally, there are other tourism potentials such as the forests rich of the specific orchid of thousands species. All of the tourism potentials may be developed into interesting tourist attractions. Additionally, there are also rare species of flora and fauna found in Asmat forests.

It is necessary to formulate a plan or a program to develop the tourism sector of Asmat district considering the existing tourism potentials such as wild nature tourism in National Garden or in protected forests that are rich of specific orchids of thousands species. The tourism potentials have not been well-managed. A good management of the tourism potentials will result in local tourist attractions for both domestic and international tourists. The only obstacle to develop the tourism sector of the district is geographic one. Geographically, the district is not easy to access, especially using ground transportation routes, while the air transportation is limited. Therefore, the development of tourism sector is capital intensive though it has promising outcome in the future.

Cooperative

Cooperative is very potential in improving the living standard and the prosperity of the people of Asmat district. It plays an important role in the distribution of commodities and products to the existing sub-districts in addition to its role as the channel to distribute basic requirements of the local people. It also boosts the economic development of the district. For example, the cooperatives that operates in the sub-sidstrict Agats serve as the marketing agents for the timber products of the existing timber companies and as the supplier of the materials necessary in the production of the timbers. It increases the sale of the local products and commodities and helps improve the profitability of the local businesses that subsequently give the local people a trickle-down effect in the form of improved structure and infrastructure of surrounding villages. It is the objective of the establishment of the community cooperatives (kopermas).

Bank/Financial Institution

Until 2007 there are 2 banks in Asmat district, which are Bank Papua and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI).  Meanwhile, there are 6 PPKDs at sub-district level, namely Erma PPKD, Atsy PPKD, Pantai Kasuari PPKD, Suator PPKD, Akat PPKD, and Favit PPKD.