BELITUNG - PT Timah Tbk continues to support the Air Jelutung farmer group, Badau Village in increasing the production of pineapple plants in the former mining area.
PT Timah Tbk in collaboration with Sucofindo Semarang conducted training on biocart, cocopeat, and the manufacture of liquid organic fertilizer.
The training is intended to assist the Air Jelutung Farmers Group in solving the problem of ex-mining land which is still not optimal or fertile in the utilization of pineapple plantations managed by the group.
Head of the Jelutung Water Farmers Group, Suhari, said PT Timah Tbk continues to play a role in assisting them in overcoming the problem of infertile land for the plantation.
This is because the soil nutrients in the former mining site are not very good or not optimal for agriculture.
"So yesterday we were given training and tools for making manure or compost by burning it," said Suhari.
Suhari believes that the training conducted by PT Timah Tbk can help overcome soil fertility problems.
Moreover, making compost is very easy and can be done by members of their farmer groups.
He appreciated the training held by PT Timah Tbk because it could increase the productivity of their agricultural land.
Suhari explained the compost material came from chicken manure, pineapple waste, and used coconut fiber.
He mentioned, in this training they were also trained to make coconut fiber into compost by means of fermentation.
Meanwhile, pineapple waste can also be composted by chopping it and then fermenting it first.
"So we are still waiting for about 1 month, and only then will we apply it to new plants, it will be seen," he explained.
Then, Suhari explained that the nutrients in the former mine were still low at around 15 so the growth in pineapple production was not optimal.
In fact, the nutrient standards are around 20 to 30, therefore one of the ways is using compost which is taught in the training.
"So if the nutrients are good, this location will be developed into agro-tourism later," he said. (*)
