BANGKA – The Bangka Belitung Archipelago Province still has a relatively high level of dependence on food needs from the outside. One of them, is commodity chili which is still imported from outside.
Even though chili is one of the food ingredients that is needed by the community, if the supply is disrupted, it's no wonder the price of chilies soars up, even reaching IDR 180,000 per kilogram.
To help reduce Babylon's dependence on food from outside the region, PT Timah Tbk's subsidiary, PT Timah Agro Manunggal (TAM) is developing a chili plantation located in East Kace Village, West Mendo District, Bangka Regency.
So that later it can help meet the supply of chili needs in the Bangka Belitung Islands Province.
Currently, there are two types of Chili Varieties planted by PT TAM and this is a trial stage. The reason is, they still have to recognize the contours of the land and what type of chili is suitable for planting on that land.
"If you already know which one is right, that's what you will plant continuously, which of course is resistant to pests and our soil conditions," said PT TAM President Director Dicky Sinoritha during the corn and chili harvest, Thursday (9/2/2023).
He hopes that the chili plantations can help the dependence on imports of food from outside.
"As we know, in Bangka Belitung, most of the food supplies, such as corn, chilies and others, come from outside Bangka Island. At least we can help reduce imports of food supplies from outside," said Dicky.
He also hopes that later the farmers will be able to participate in planting chilies so that they can increase the supply from Bangka.
"This is also an effort to inspire fellow farmers like us to increase supplies for our own areas," he said.
He added, in the future, they also plan to carry out the chili product downstream industry.
"We have future plans to plant in an area of ??20 to 50 hectares, and we will do it in stages. In fact, we will also prepare downstream products as well. Which of course can be directly consumed by consumers," he said.
The downstream product that Dicky meant was from today's chili harvest which would be used as material for bottled chilies.
"We will try this out first. We will continue with satisfactory results. And we have prepared the formula so that the product can be released on the market," he explained.
As for corn, according to Dicky, previously his party had conducted trials of planting corn with various varieties.
"The type of corn that we harvest is a type of sweet corn, which is generally sold at tourist spots or what we know as sweet corn. Previously we also harvested corn for animal feed," he said.
