New Hope at the Beginning of the Planting Season
Tunas Baru Group in Sajang Village, Sembalun District is an agricultural group assisted by Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) in East Lombok Regency. This farmer group is one of several groups receiving non-cash agricultural input assistance with the support of UNDP Petra. Agricultural output in this group decreased during the pandemic, causing an economic impact, especially on farmers with children.
Supendi (35), chairman of the Tunas Baru Group, confirmed this. However, since receiving assistance and non-cash assistance, this group is again optimistic about farming.
"Yesterday, we took agricultural inputs, such as hoes, shallot seeds, and ecofert (eco-friendly fertilizer). The main commodity of our farmer group is more onion because we have been planting this commodity for 3 years,” said Supendi.
According to him, the Tunas Baru Group had planted the shallot seeds they had bought using one of the farmer groups' lands as an experiment. One hundred kilograms of purchased shallot seeds are planted on an area of ââ1.5 hectares.
"Because the seeds are limited, so that later the results have been planted and are successful, the results will be distributed to other members so that they can plant the seeds, and they can sell the produce back to meet the needs of their families," he continued.
The efforts made by Supendi and his team were not in vain. Shallots planted using bokashi fertilizer as a result of the training with WVI have been successful.
"The changes we feel are started with me and the group often following several programs from Wahana Visi Indonesia in synergy with UPTD Agriculture Sembalun, starting from integrated agricultural training related to marketing and producing good quality production, to friends from WVI and UPTD coming down. field directly to teach us new things to be able to make organic fertilizer. Currently, our plants can grow well with rainy weather conditions," he concluded.
Supendi hopes that WVI and UPTD agriculture will continue to assist farmers so that farmers get good solutions related to problems faced in agriculture so that the results can be marketed with high value. Until now, there are 18 farmer groups assisted by WVI, where most of the groups have started planting their superior commodities again at the beginning of the planting season.
Written by: Siluh Puspita, Lombok Earthquake Response Staff Wahana Visi Indonesia
