FULL OF APPRECIATION: The participants, who were dominated by women and female teenagers, listened and comprehended the elaboration of the Director of Gemawan, Laili Khairnur, at the Workshop on the Preparation for 2016-2017 MCA-Indonesia Program Implementation at My Home Hotel in Sintang, Thursday (18/08/2016). ). Photo: Mahmudi/GEMAWAN.
Sintang, GEMAWAN.
Director of the Association of Swandiri Community Development (Gemawan), Laili Khairnur, explained that in the program of strengthening women’s economic development in Sintang and Kapuas Hulu regencies, eco- friendly agriculture is more preferred to organic farming.
“Being eco-friendly that we mean is having a minimal input of chemical substances and developing more productivity than land expansion,” said Laili Khairnur at the Workshop on the Preparation for Implementation of the 2016-2017 MCA-Indonesia Program Implementation at My Home Hotel in Sintang, Thursday (18/08/2016). .
With the title, “Initiatives for Strengthening the Economic Development of Women’s Groups through Empowerment and Sustainable Agriculture”.
The Consortium for Women and Life Sustainability in West Kalimantan was organized with Gemawan association as its host, with the members are Dian Tama Foundation, Borneo Women’s Resource Development Center (PPSW), Simpai Kapuas, Sintang Regency, and Khatulistiwa Woman Journalist (JPK), with the support of Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Indonesia program.
“Meanwhile, the Hazton method is a method of treating plants by maximizing seeds and good planting procedures,” Laili Khairnur said.
Then, she continued, using local resources in agriculture, for example taming pests and diseases by developing natural predators and natural plants as pest repellents. Then using grass waste, organic waste, and compost as fertilizers, including charcoal compost, which is known for its soil-enhancing, binding, and spore-forming advantages that are beneficial to plants.
This method does not become a source of toxic waste for the surrounding environment. This program also selects superior and adaptive varieties to local agriculture.
“The agriculture also supports agroforestry practices developed by the community through rubber forests and old forests in several areas around the agricultural land in the program area,” Laili Khairnur asserted.
Eco-friendly agriculture is more focused on maintaining agro-ecosystems, yet keep on trying to achieve optimal production. A good agroecosystem becomes urgent because it has an impact on a sustainable agricultural system.
Basically, eco-friendly agriculture is an effort to achieve optimal production without damaging the environment, whether physical, chemical, biological, or ecological. It also creates zero waste agricultural cultivation.
For example, utilizing paddy waste, such as straw which is processed into compost. The eco-friendly agricultural model also reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which contributes to global (world) warming. Rice plants emit methane emissions that affect GHG.
“We prefer to strengthen eco-friendly agriculture in the community because it is sustainable. Meanwhile, organic farming must be from upstream to downstream and changing the culture of the village community requires a long time,” Laili Khairnur added.
She said that the production of organic farming generally will decline at the beginning of the application. In addition, chemical residues in conventional or organic farming do not disappear immediately. Because it still has an impact in several years, especially fertilizers containing phosphorus which are commonly used by village farmers.
The communities need to return to eco-friendly agriculture and organic farming so that the land and its ecosystem will improve and can be used for the next generation. (Gemawan-Mud)