Ric – Goducate … Go And Educate!

2016-03-172016-03-17

Goducate agricultural team gave lectures four higher educational institutions in North Sumatra

Recently, members of Goducate’s agriculture team gave separate lectures at Universitas Prima Indonesia, STAKPN, STTT, and GMKI/STT-HKBP in Medan, Tarutung, Parapat, and Pematang Siantar, respectively, in North Sumatra. More than 700 faculty and students attended the four lectures.

At Universitas Prima Indonesia, the topic focused on vermicomposting for palm-oil plantations. The university has a school of agrotechnology whose students are assured of employment in the palm-oil industry after their graduation. It appeared that the majority of students had previously heard about vermicomposting but were clueless on how to raise worms for converting palm-oil-mill wastes into organic fertilizer. The lecture generated a lot of questions after the process was explained with the aid of graphics from Central Plantations Group, which had last year received technical advice from us on how to improve its vermicomposting project with palm-oil-mill wastes as primary substrates for earthworms (see blog, July 3, 2015).

For the STAKPN, STTT, and GMKI/STT-HKBP audience, the topic focused on Moringa production, processing, and utilization. The faculty and students of these higher-educational institutions regularly do community work, and they find Moringa most relevant in improving the lives of the needy in the populations they serve.

By teaching the students on the importance, production, processing, and utilization of Moringa, Goducate expects that they will pass on the knowledge to their parents, relatives, neighbors, and the communities where they will live or work after graduation.

2016-03-042016-03-09

Goducate assists food security needs of households displaced by volcano eruptions in Indonesia

The intermittent explosions of Mount Sinabung have displaced more than 22,000 families in the Karo highlands of North Sumatra. The volcano started emitting gases in September 2013, which eventually intensified into pyroclastic flows stretching as far as three kilometers away. The hot ashes had, on many occasions, blanketed the vegetative cover and caused significant damage to horticultural crops, poultry, and livestock. The smoke also triggered respiratory-related problems among the affected population.

Upon invitation from an organization based in Kabanjahe city that is providing civic support to Mount Sinabung victims, we briefed their officers on food-security matters that Goducate has been sharing with Indonesians during the past three years. These include topics on Moringa production, processing, and utilization; systems of rice intensification; hydroponics and aquaponics; vermicomposting and vermitea brewing; container gardening; food always in the home (FAITH) gardening; effective microorganisms for crop production; and, improved coffee, cacao, and chili production practices.

Two days after the briefing, we gave a detailed presentation on the benefits from Moringa to some Mount Sinabung community leaders. After the lecture, we visited Kampong (village) Siosar, the government designated resettlement site for households displaced by the Mount Sinabung eruptions. Kampong Siosar is a 45-minute drive from Kota Kabanjahe.

The 300 resettled families in the village have each been provided with a decent house and 5,000 sq m land. The plots of land are about 2 km away from the resettlement site.

Some households had strawberry grown in polybags in their frontyards, but only enough for home consumption. All the 300 families face strong headwind on matters of food security.

We recommended that each family starts by planting at least two Moringa seedlings in its backyard. Because of the 1500-meter altitude of the site, the most suitable Moringa type is PKM1 first introduced in India. In the near-term, we hope to empower the displaced households with more knowledge on holistic and sustainable farming practices to help them achieve food security and earn a stable income.

At land allocated to one of the displaced families

2015-07-032015-07-06

Goducate assists large-scale vermicomposting project in Pekanbaru

The conversion of solid palm-oil-mill wastes such as empty fruit bunches (EFB) and palm pressed fibers (PPF) into organic fertilizer has been a major challenge to Central Plantations Group (CPG) in Pekanbaru, Riau, Indonesia. The company had invested heavily in imported machinery to speed up the thermophilic composting process, but the high-energy cost in operating the equipment has rendered it idle.

Andrew, the managing director of CPG, learned that Goducate provides technical support to those interested in vermicomposting. His main focus is on how the palm-oil-mill residues can be fed to earthworms as an economically useful alternative to natural composting, which can take up to six months to complete due to the slow rate of decomposition.

Five months ago, Andrew and his partners purchased 1.5 tons of earthworms from some suppliers in Java and stocked them into 20 vermibeds, each measuring 10.5 sq m. To ascertain whether or not the workers were following the best practices in vermicomposting, Andrew invited us to visit the project to learn from us.

We observed that, aside from some red worms, Lumbricus rubellus was the dominant earthworm species in the vermibeds. We recommended the gradual stocking of African Night Crawlers (ANCs), known scientifically as Eudrilus eugeniae, and multiplying them into large populations, because these are considered the most efficient above-soil-surface composting earthworm in the tropics. Lumbricus is a temperate-sourced earthworm and thrives very well in highlands like those in Bandung and the Karo Highlands. Additionally, unlike ANCs, Lumbricus is an efficient composter of animal manure rather than carbon-based residues like palm-oil-mill wastes.

We also explained that the residual nutrient contents from empty fruit bunches and palm pressed fibers are of low percentages. To produce quality vermicast, we suggested the addition of animal manure from cattle, horses, goat, sheep, or native chickens. The dung from commercially-fed chicken broilers is not ideal for earthworms because it contains traces of antibiotics, which can neutralize the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and other microbes that serve as food for earthworms. The food combination should ideally be 500 kilos of animal manure for every 3,000 kilos of empty fruit bunches and palm pressed fibers.

Some of the other recommendations we shared with Andrew was the relocation of the vermicomposting project to a bigger site and adjacent to CPG’s palm-oil mill to reduce the transportation costs of raw materials. Another piece of advice was to shift from manual to mechanized operations if the company’s long-term goal is to have a daily vermicast output 10 tons.

Finally, we also encouraged CPG to help popularize vermicomposting through seminars and training, in order to help needy Indonesian farmers help themselves.

Locally fabricated mechanical sieve for separating earthworms from vermicast