Tanah Bumbu farmers strive to alleviate inflation by producing vegetables

Batulicin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Sekar Rahayu farmers group in Manunggal Village, Tanah Bumbu Regency, South Kalimantan, produce vegetables and distribute them to all local markets as their contribution to alleviiate inflation.

"We plant various type of vegetables, there are tomatoes, hot chilies, curly chilies, and others, also papaya," said chairperson of the farmers group Husaini through their PR Supriyanto in Batulicin, Tuesday.

Supriyanto said so far farmers in Tanah Bumbu mostly prefer to grow rice than vegetables, thus traders have to bring in vegetables from outside for the needs of Tanah Bumbu markets, because of limitged availability of vegetable from local farmers.

This is thought to be causing vegetables prices become more expensive and scarce due to dependence on other regions which has an impact on food inflation.

This is the reason that farmers in Manunggal Village grouping in Sekar Rahayu, Sederhana, and Sumber Makmur with 30 members, prefer to grow vegetables than rice.

Apart from curbing inflation and to meet the local needs, in fact vegetables also have higher economic value than rice.

"The profit reaches 300 percent of the capital from planting to harvest or approximately Rp10 million per hectare," he expounded.

The tomato planting area, Supriyanto gave an example, two hectares for a harvest of three tons. The harvest cycle is one to two or twice a week.

Then, curly red chili has an area of two hectares. One ton per hectare for each harvest. While hot chili or cayenne pepper only one hectare, it produces six quintals for each harvest.

"All vegetable are sold at cheaper that market price, with a margin up to Rp10,000 per kg," said Supriyanto.

Farmers here use a mulch system for planting method. It has an advantage of maintaining soil moisture and prevents weed from growing easily in the vegetable growing area.

Head of Food Crops and Horticulture at the Tanah Bumbu Food Security and Agriculture Office (DKPP) Robby Chandra told that to assist Sekar Ayu and other farmers groups in the district, the regional government keeps on providing assistance through the state (APBN) and the local budget (APBD).

"This is to support food production to curb inflation in Tanah Bumbu district," he said.

The assistance provided for farmers groups were in the form of agricultural tools and machinery (alsintan), such as water pump, two-wheeled tractor, four-wheeled tractor, handed over in 2017.

In 2023, the relevant agencies also distributed one two-wheeled tractor to Sekar Ayu farmers group.

Other assistance were seeds of corn, chilies, bean, tomatoes sourced from APBN 2023 to all farmer groups. The seeds distributed for a planting area of 1000-3000 hectares.

The local government also running a sustainable food yard program (seed houses) for farmers group through the APBD 2023 funds.

"We also apply chili and vegetable development program for all farmer groups in Tanah Bumbu by attending mini expo for seed producer in Manunggal Village, Karang Bintang Sub-district," said Roby.