Helping Farmers to be Prosperous

Badri’s spirit for helping farmers to optimize their production of crops and vegetables has never subsided. The 31-year-old makes liquid organic fertilizer and pesticides from leaves and household vegetable waste.

KOMPAS/KHAERUL ANWAR

Badri

"Initially, the farmers in this hamlet failed to harvest rice twice during the 2008 to 2009 planting season. This was due to the prolonged use of chemical [fertilizers]," Badri said when he talked on Feb. 9 about empowering farmers through the use of organic fertilizers and pesticides.

The resident of Sukamulia hamlet, East Pohgading village, East Lombok, about 69 kilometers east of Mataram city, said the long-term use of chemical fertilizer damaged soil, killed microorganisms necessary for decomposition and harmed the stocks of plants. Eventually, it reduced crop yields.

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The rice harvest failure was experienced by, among others, Badri\'s parents who owned less than a quarter hectare of rice fields in 2008 to 2009. The harvest failures occurred because of caterpillars and grasshoppers. Badri, who was a biology student at that time, was driven to overcome the problem of rice crop failure in his village. He chose to grow things organically. Starting in 2010, he experimented by mixing liquid organic fertilizer (POC).

Good fermentation results will produce a distinctive odor. If the fermentation fails, the smell will not be good.

Based on his study of scientific literature, he learned that plants need the elements of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). These three chemical elements can stimulate plant growth, help them absorb water and nutrients and protect the soil from the effects of excessive use of chemical fertilizers.

Badri then collected various types of organic waste, such as vegetables, banana leaves, mango leaves, lamtoro (river tamarind) leaves and so on. He crushed the waste into an extract form and then immersed it in water for one week to ferment it. The goal is to stimulate the N, P, and K elements from the organic waste extract.

The extract is filtered. The water is stored in a container and will later be used as a POC. The residue is made into compost. "Good fermentation results will produce a distinctive odor. If the fermentation fails, the smell will not be good,” he said.

KOMPAS/KHAERUL ANWAR

Badri

The POC is used by Badri to fertilize the plants. He mixed POC with water, which he sprayed on the plants. He performed a trial on a farmland his parents planted with long beans.

Badri needed three years of experimentation to find the right POC mixture, which is 150 milliliters (ml) of POC mixed with 15 liters of water. The result was the long beans flourished: the leaves, stems and the beans. Long beans, which were originally harvested three times per year, can now be harvested six times.

The successful experiment on long beans was then applied to rice plants with a composition of 4 liters of POC for 2,500 liters of water per hectare. The results were encouraging. The harvest reached 6 to 7 tons of rice per hectare, exceeding the harvest when using chemical fertilizers, which averaged 5 tons per hectare.

Badri’s success using POC gradually changed the mindset of the farmers in his village. "Farmers were initially reluctant to use POC because their products were rarely sold at the market and it took longer for harvesting. Now they are aware that using the POC protects their plants from being disturbed by pests and diseases. Even though it takes longer before the harvest, the important thing is that the rice is safe; it can be harvested," Badri said.

KOMPAS/KHAERUL ANWAR

Badri

Spread

The success of farming with the organic fertilizer soon spread among farmers through word of mouth and social media. The story not only spread through the village of East Pohgading where Badri lived, but also outside the village. A number of farmers in other areas on Lombok, for example, requested the organic fertilizer. In 2015, farmers from beyond the island of Lombok, such as Bali, Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, Papua, Blitar and Tuban (East Java) and Sumbawa, also ordered POC.

In 2017, Badri sent 150 liters of POC to farmers on Bali and 2,000 liters to farmers in Papua. Badri sells POC to farmers in several regions at a price of Rp 20,000 per 150 ml. He was capable of producing 300 to 500 liters of POC per month.

He gives the fertilizer for free to the 400 farmers in his village. They only need to bring him the raw materials, while Badri conducts the POC fermentation. In exchange, after harvesting the farmers give Badri rice, vegetables and fruits. From farmers outside the village, he receives payments.

They said my activity was useless. They mocked me, a university graduate, for producing fertilizer

After the success of the POC, Badri developed another product, organic pesticides, mainly to stop snails from eating rice plants. He experimented by using tobacco, which he soaked in water for several hours. The tobacco water is an organic pesticide.

Throughout 2019, Badri was unable to meet the farmers\' requests for POC from a number of regions because there was a problem with the brand name he was using. He was asked to change it because it was already being used by another institution. However, Badri\'s house was always crowded with farmers from around Lombok who wanted to get the organic fertilizer.

To meet the high demand for the POC, Badri, who works daily as a teacher in a private school, uses his free weekends to produce it.

He said his organic fertilizer production often met with negative responses from his friends. "They said my activity was useless. They mocked me, a university graduate, for producing fertilizer," he said.

The comments generally came from unemployed people, so Badri recruited 30 unemployed school dropouts to join ASA Komunitas and get paid to produce POC.

In addition, Badri and his brother helped 15 school dropouts at the junior and senior high school levels to complete their education using money from the sale of the POC. "Alhamdulillah [thank God], out of the 15 people, only two have not finished school," he said.

Apparently POC made from waste can empower many people.

Badri

Born: 31 December 1989 Wife: Miftahul Jannah (22) Child: Ramaditya Raka Badrika Education: SDN 2 Sukamulia, graduated in 2002, SMPN 1 Pringgabaya, graduated in 2005- Biology program at STKIP Hamzanwadi, Pancor, East Lombok, graduated in 2013

Award: National Youth Pioneer in Innovation in 2017