Three students of the Faculty of Agriculture Universitas Brawijaya (FP UB) who are members of PKM-RE Universitas Brawijaya (UB) Abdillah Amirul Saleh, Alya Shofiya, and Erik Wahyuni under the guidance of Tita Widjayanti SP., M.Sc., make a multifunctional Bio-Organic Fertilizer from food and livestock waste with a mixture of a consortium of rhizobacteria named BIOSCAP.
The fertilizer is allegedly able to reduce disease intensity to 100 percent and increase plant growth by 11-22% based on the number of leaves, plant height and number of branches.
This innovation is motivated by the large number of food and livestock waste that is increasingly piling up in landfills and has not been used optimally, such as egg shells, banana peels, and bio-slurry.
According to BPS data, egg shell production in Indonesia reached 4,753,382 tons and banana peel production in Indonesia reached 4,368,394 tons.
Meanwhile, bio-slurry is waste from biogas processing that is rarely used and only pile up in the septic tank.
The organic waste that is rarely used has the potential to be used as fertilizer that can increase plant productivity.
“The use of egg shells can be a source of high calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), banana peels can be a source of Potassium (K), and bio-slurry as a source of Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K). In addition, BIOSCAP also contains beneficial microorganisms, namely Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Azotobacter sp., Azospirillum sp., and Aspergillus niger which can stimulate plant growth and increase growth productivity, “said Alya Shofiya.
In addition, BIOSCAP fertilizer can act as a bio protectant and bio stimulant that can suppress and inhibit the intensity of disease attacks. This fertilizer has been tested on soybean plants infected with Soybean Mosaic Virus (SMV).
SMV can reduce plant productivity by 25.48% to 93.84%. The use of BIOSCAP fertilizer was proven to be able to reduce the intensity of SMV disease and increase soybean productivity.
“Through this innovation, it is expected that this fertilizer can be a solution for farmers to overcome plant diseases, especially soybean mosaic virus in soybeans,” said Abdillah as the team leader. [Humas UB/ Trans. Iir]
