The Maize that Saves Our Life
Muhammad Arif (41 yo), known as Arif, is the owner of the Sejahtera Farmers Shop who also an Intermediary Service Provider (ISP) in Bulili Village, Nokilalaki District, Sigi Regency, Sulawesi Tengah Province. Apart from selling agricultural things, Arif is also actively involved in horticultural agriculture, such as growing tomatoes and chilies. He also grows maize.
Before, Arif, a high school graduate, along with Jurhana, his wife, did cocoa farming. At that time, farmers in Bulili Village earned a good income from cocoa plants so that they could send their children to school or university. However, since 2018 the cocoa farming in the village has experienced a significant decline in crop yields caused by pest attacks.
The decline in cocoa yields has an impact on children's education. Many children in this village drop out of school because the main income of the farming families in this village is from cocoa plants. This condition has prompted Arif and other farmers to switch from cocoa to maize.
"Initially, my fellow farmers and I tried to plant HJ 21 (government assistance) maize seeds, but the results were very disappointing," said Arif.
In June 2018, Arif participated in the NK 212 maize expo in Bobo Village, which was held by PT Syngenta collaborates with Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI). Arif was very interested in planting NK maize because he received information that this type of maize had great yield potential. He also shared the knowledge on NK corn cultivation that he got when he joined the expo with other farmers in his village.
In 2019, Arif bought 5 kg of NK Sumo seeds that were distributed to 5 farmers. He did this for promoting the NK Sumo seed as well as encouraging farmers in the village to use quality seeds in maize farming. When one of the farmers in the villages planted 1 kg of NK Sumo and got a yield of 1,020 kg, the farmers in Bulili village were even more motivated to plant maize using the NK Sumo seeds.
According to Arif, of the total area of 800 hectares of cocoa farming in Bulili village, around 160 hectares have been converted into maize farming.
"Apart from the increase in crop yields, other changes that are happening now are that most of the farmers in Bulili Village have applied the correct planting method which was obtained from the socializations carried out by Wahana Visi Indonesia in collaboration with PT. Syngenta,” Arif told.
The increased yields have also brought economic improvement for the farmer families so that currently the children in the village can go to school and might to the university level. Arif hopes that PT Syngenta continues assisting maize farmers in Bulili Village so that farmers get good solutions related to problems faced in maize farming. He also hopes that maize farmers who have not used quality seeds will switch to using NK seeds so that they can also experience economic improvement.
Written by: Nofrin Tobigo, Field Consultant of Moringa Project Sulawesi Tengah Wahana Visi Indonesia
