UNS — Three students of Soil Science Program Faculty of Agriculture (FP) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta won 2nd place in the National Scientific Writing Competition held in the National Soil Science Students Week 2021 Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh on 17 September 2021. The team consisted of Iksaniyah, Erin Septiana Nurafidah, and Nur Ayni Fitri.
The five-semester students proposed degraded lands rehabilitation using local plants combined with Arbuscular mycorrhizal biofertilizer in silvopastoral agroforestry systems in Wuryantoro Subdistrict, Wonogiri. The region was selected due to its extensive degraded lands caused by erosion and high runoff. Erin, in an interview conducted on Friday (8/10/2021), explained that silvopastoral agroforestry was selected because her team wanted to combine the components that exist in the region. “Agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry,” she mentioned. The system is implemented using local plants, including woody plants (teak, sengon, mahogany), annual crops (cashew, banana, mango), semiannual crops (corn, peanuts), vegetable crops (chili, eggplant, cucumber), and terrace/fodder crops (lamtoro and elephant grass).
The team also did not use any non-organic compounds and chose mycorrhizal biofertilizer and community-produced manure to reduce fertilizer costs. The combination of local plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal biofertilizer could enhance plants growth, improve the quality and germination of forestry plants on critical lands that are poor in nutrients, and make plants tolerant to environmental stress.
“The use of local plants also increases local community economy. Thus, besides considering the environmental aspects, we also considered the economic aspects that could benefit the local community,” Erin added.
Erin hoped that the idea could be implemented and benefits many people besides provides a lesson for their next competitions. “Hopefully, we could continue creating and achieve an accomplishment,” she stated. Erin also reminded her fellow students to continue using the opportunity to achieve an accomplishment. Humas UNS
Reporter: Bayu Aji Prasetya
Editor: Dwi Hastuti