Balangan to hold rare fruit festival annually

Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (Antaranews Kalsel) - Marajai Village held the first ever exhibition of rare fruit in South Kalimantan, Saturday (12/1). Hundreds of people from many places flocked to this remote village in Halong Subdistrict, Balangan.

While the committee provides hundreds of durian to be enjoyed by all visitors. A few moments after the festival was opened by Regent Balangan H. Ansaruddin, visitors immediately attacked the various kinds of fruit.

Regent H Ansharudin appreciated the event and said this local fruit festival as beneficial to let people know the rare local fruit they might have never known before.

This, he said, will make people love local fruit. Some others may eager to preserve them. He expected Marajai as a new tourist destination and he wanted the event to become the annual agenda.

"We want more fruit to be exhibited by the species in the future, and the activities to be collaborating with the Balangan Government," Ansharudin said.

According to him, Marajai is a village center for fruit germplasm in Balangan. It has been widely known by the community, especially after this festival, so the village will be more visited by people in the coming years.

Marajai all this time contributed the most to durian traders in Balangan. Durian here has a variety of species, there are red-skinned durian called lahung (durio dulcis), yellow durian mantaula (Durio kutejensis), dark green durian, long pointed spines called mahrawin (Durio oxleyanus), and various other types.

Marajai also has nine types of tarap (Artocarpus), such as culidang (Artocarpus lanceifolius), puyian (Artocarpus rigidus) and others. Other fruits identified in this Meratus Mountains village are Silulung (Baccaurea angulata) maritam (Nephelium ramboutan-ake) bumbunau (Aglaia laxiflora), babuku (Dimocarpus longan subspecies malesianus), luying or luing (Scutinanthe brunnea).

According to the Marajai Village Chief Adi Setiawan, as many as 150 species of Kalimantan typical fruits grow here, and about 100 of them are nurtured by local residents. Adi was assisted by Hanif Wicasono, a person who struggle to preserve rare fruit to save the germplasm of South Kalimantan, to hold the festival.

It's just that the road access to this village is still not as expected because it is still in the form of rocks and red soil with holes and waterlogged.

Therefore, in the future, the regent said he will ask the local Public Works Agency to prioritize the construction of roads to this village.