A lecturer from the Faculty of Agriculture, Dr. Rita Parmawati, SP, ME, IPU, ASEAN Eng., developed organic mulch tape from banana waste, water hyacinth and bitter leaf (crotalaria sp) to prevent weed growth and reduce the rate of evaporation.
Rita Parmawati said that organic mulch tape is a technology that replaces plastic mulch which is considered environmentally unfriendly since it cannot decompose properly. The disadvantages of using plastic mulch on plant growth are that it can reduce plant growth and yield, increase pest attacks, increase microplastic contamination, waterlogging, loss of soil structure and reduce the activity of soil microorganisms.
She explained that the technology would be applied when approaching the second planting season in Malaka Regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), because in that area there is a lot of banana waste.
“Therefore, we utilize water hyacinth and bitter leaves together to be crushed, chopped and molded into a sheet of 25 cm wide,” she said.
Its function, she said, is to suppress weed growth and reduce the evaporation rate by up to 40%. And if it exposed to the sun, the organic mulch tape will decompose into fertilizer.
Currently, she said, the process of applying the mulch tape is carried out on a laboratory scale and is already at the socialization stage with the regent of Malaka Regency, and several farmer groups and heads of departments in Malaka Regency environment.
“Why did we choose Malaka Regency as the location for implementing the Organic Mulch Tape technology because based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), agricultural growth in the area is still low. In fact, the people of Malaka Regency depend on their economic system from the agricultural sector,” she said.
Rita added that Malaka Regency is also a border area with a low economic growth rate.
“The problem there is that rice productivity has decreased from 2020 to 2022 and there are difficulties in supplying rice seeds and there are other agricultural problems such as weeds, evaporation, soil temperature, and irrigation systems. That is what we are currently trying to solve and hopefully rice productivity in 2024 will increase,” she said.
“We will go to Malak at the end of July. For the process of making Mulch Tape for 10 hectares of land, we are working with the machine factory PT. Widjaya Teknik Indonesia (Witech),” said Rita.
For the sustainability of the application of technology, the community will be taught how to make organic mulch tape starting from introducing materials, chopping, making tape pulp, drying and pressing so that the community is expected to be able to independently produce organic mulch tape. (OKY/UB PR/ Trans. Iir).
