Touna Farmers Celebrate Padungku Harvest Festival
Bonebae 2, Tojo Una-Una Regency in Central Sulawesi is one of the villages that is known as a maize producer. However, several years earlier, Bonebae 2 villages often experienced crop failure due to the dry season and difficult access to water. Therefore, Wahana Visi Indonesia through Touna Program Area assists farmers to plant heat-resistant crops, named the butternut squash and kabocha.
Around October 2019, Mr. Saharudin, or who is usually called Papa Adhan with members of the Mutiara group were trained to plant the butternut squash and kabocha. The dry conditions are suitable for pumpkin types, therefore the butternut squash and kabocha can grow well and the results are quite satisfying and can be sold to one of the supermarkets in Palu City.
WVI's assistance to the Mutiara group is not only in terms of technical planting, but also assistance for them to access the assistance of the government, one of which is a mini cultivator tool that they proposed to the Agriculture Agency.
The progress of the Mutiara group in managing horticultural agriculture has begun to be seen by outsiders, one of them is Wahana Lestari, which provides them with mulch assistance to plant chilies, and Agriculture Officer at the Sub-district level which accompanies them to access Onion seed assistance.
As a result, Papa Adhan and Mutiara Group succeeded in cultivating honey squash, chilies, and Onions as well as other vegetables. The increased rainfall in the middle of the year and the opening of access to Water Local Company from other villages are also factors that support farmers in Bonebae 2 to successfully cultivate the kind of pumpkin and other vegetables.
Their success in growing pumpkins, chilies, and other vegetables made them initiate thanksgiving for the harvest or what they are familiar with as Padungku. Papa Adhan together with the group independently collected the harvest and some of the necessities for the Padungku event and worked together to prepare the event.
In this activity, they also invited related agencies such as the Department of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives of Tojo Una-Una and Agriculture Department of Tojo Una-Una, and the head of Family Welfare Development of Tojo Una-Una as a way for brands and advocate the government to support them in providing supporting inputs and market access which is currently getting more difficult due to COVID-19 such as expressed by Papa Adhan.
“This year we made Padungku different from the previous one. It’s bigger because our harvest this year is better than in the previous years. There are chilies, butternut squash, and onions. We are glad that the first mother of Tojo Una-Una and the agencies came to this event so that we can convey directly the things we need in the future," he explained.
Papa Adhan and his group hope that through Padungku, the market access for their products will be wide open so that their families and children can get more benefits.
Written by: Staff of Touna Program Area, Wahana Visi Indonesia
