Mulsa

oleh: Ikhsan hasibuan, MSc
email: ikhsan.hasibuan@gmail.com

Mulsa adalah komponen penting dalam sistem pertanian berkelanjutan. Pada awal sejarahnya, sistem mulsa banyak digunakan petani anggur untuk mengurangi gulma yang tumbuh di antara baris jalur pertanaman anggur. Cara ini kini banyak diterapkan di sistem pertanam yang lain.

Manfaat pemberian mulsa yaitu:

1. Mengurangi penyiraman, karena penguapan air dari tanah menjadi berkurang
2. Menjaga suhu tanah lebih stabil. suhu di sekitar perakaran tetap sejuk hingga akar bisa bekerja lebih optimal.
3. Pengendali gulma
4. Mengurangi erosi air atau angin
5. Menambah keindahan lahan pertanian
6. sebagai sumber hara

Mulsa terbagi 2 jenis; organik dan inorganik. Mulsa organik antara lain jerami, serasah, kompos, atau segala sesuatu yang berasal dari mahluk hidup. Mulsa inorganik misalnya batu dan lembaran plastik.
Penggunaan mulsa inorganik biasanya ditujukan utamanya untuk pengendalian gulma.

Mulsa inorganik masih dalam perdebatan apakah masuk kategori pertanian berkelanjutan atau bukan, tergantung bahan yang digunakan. Mulsa plastik misalnya sangat sulit untuk dianggap berkelanjutan karena pembuatan plastik bukanlah cara yang tidak merusak lingkungan. Mulsa batu adalah contoh mulsa inorganik yang sustainable.

Cara mudah membuat pupuk organik untuk home garden

oleh: ikhsan hasibuan

Membuat kompos sendiri adalah hal dasar yang harus difahami bagi yang hobi berkebun sayur atau bunga secara organic di kebun atau halaman rumah. Kompos bermanfaat sebagai pengganti urea dan pupuk kimia lain yang bisa merusak lingkungan.
Berikut ada cara mudah membuat pupuk organic dengan bahan-bahan dari sisa rumah tangga.

1. Supaya halaman rumah jadi tidak rusak pemandangannya sebaiknya terlebih dahulu disiapkan terlebih dahulu tempat pembuatan kompos, bisa dari kotak kayu atau hanya tanah kosong yang nantinya akan diletakkan bahan kompos dan ditutupi dengan karung atau plastik.
2. Bahan-bahan yang disiapkan sebagai bahan utama pembuatan compost adalah semua sisa organic dari dapur sebagai sumber Nitrogen (semua yang berwarna hijau) misalnya sisa sayuran dan buah, yang perlu diperhatikan ada beberapa bahan yg sebaiknya tidak digunakan misalnya bawang dan bumbu-bumbu dapur lain.
3. Bahan lainnya adalah sebagai sumber Carbon (semua yg berwarna coklat) misalnya kulit kacang, kulit telur, ranting pohon atau bisa juga dipakai koran hitam putih. Tapi jangan pake coklat (chocolate) karna ntar bisa bangkrut.
4. Masukkan semua bahan tadi ke kotak atau ditempat yang telah disediakan. Yang perlu diperhatikan adalah komposisi campuran nitrogen carbon, sebaiknya gunakan campuran 1:4 (1 nitrogen : 4 carbon) ini untuk menjaga agar kompos tidak terlalu basah dan tidak menimbulkan bau yang tidak sedap.
5. Untuk membuat kompos dibutuhkan mikroba sebagai pekerjanya. Mikroba ini bisa didapat dari produk yang telah disediakan misalnya EM-4 (bisa didapat di kios pertanian harganya sekitar 20 ribu per 1 liter), caranya ambil 3 sendok makan EM-4 masukkan dalam 1 ember air dan tambahkan 5 sendok gula pasir dan aduk rata. Sebarkan cairan ini kedalam kompos hingga rata. Dengan cara ini kompos akan siap dipake dalam waktu 1 minggu
6. Bila susah mendapatkan produk tadi, mikroba bisa didapat dengan menggunakan tanah berwarna hitam (didalam tanah terdapat jutaan mikroba) sebaiknya berasal dari tanah yang subur. Sebarkan tanah ke bahan-bahan kompos tadi hingga rata. Dengan cara ini butuh waktu lebih lama hingga kompos siap pake sekitar 1-2 bulan.
7. Setelah semua bahan siap, tumpukan ini kemudian ditutup rata untuk menghindari panas dan hujan. Setiap 2 hari tumpukan dilihat dan disiram sedikit air dan yakinkan bahwa tumpukan bahan2 ini tidak kering (mikroba akan mati kalo kekeringan) atau tetap dalam kondisi lembab.
8. Untuk metode kompos pake tanah, bahan-bahan kompos bisa ditambahkan sedikit demi sedikit tiap harinya, sedangkan metode EM-4 sebaiknya bahannya tidak ditambah lagi.
9. Kompos yang telah siap bisa langsung digunakan atau disimpan ditempat yang terlindung panas dan hujan. Selamat berkebun.

Impact of IPM implementation in South East Asia

by: Ikhsan hasibuan, Hong ling Er, Ma Rema lauron

Green evolution in S.E.A sees the increase in pesticide use. The problems associated with excessive pesticide use include threat to environmental and human health, secondary pest outbreak and development of pesticide resistance (example).Therefore, more environmental friendly approach should be taken in order to enable a more sustainable crop production.

Integrated pest management (IPM) is a pest control method that aims at reducing the use of chemicals. It requires the knowledge of biological interaction between pest, natural enemies of pest and the crop so that complementary measures such as cultural control, biological control and selection of host plant resistance can be taken to reduce pest damage. During the last two decades, IPM has been promoted in Asian/African/Latin American countries under the collective efforts of FAO, government and NGOs. This is done through the farmer field school. In this methodology, farmers are trained to do observations and experiments in their own field. Group of farmers from neighboring places then meet up weekly to discuss their findings during the planting season. Farmer field school has been successful because it empowers the farmer, by letting them to decide for themselves the best measure in their farm, at the same time supporting them with knowledge on available technologies. As a result, pesticide use is successfully controlled, and crop yield is increased.

The philosophy of IPM coincides with organic agriculture. They are both knowledge intensive and aims at sustainable farming system. Both of them promote the use of cultural control such as crop rotation to increase biodiversity on farm. With higher biodiversity, a better balance between pest and their natural enemies can be achieved. And of course, they also select for crop varieties that are more resistant to pest. Although organic agriculture is broader than IPM because it has restriction on other aspects as well, such as fertilization, soil quality etc, IPM could be seen as a start. In this project, we would study how IPM has been implemented in S.E.A, the current state of organic agriculture in S.E.A and how organic agriculture could be promoted in S.E.A with similar approach as that of IPM, e.g. farmer field school.

What is genetic engineering?

Genetic engineering is a new technology, involving the manipulation of genes. Scientists can transfer genes from one species to another, unrelated species. This is possible because of the universal ‘gene language’ – the genetic code. It is the same for all living beings, be it animal, plants or microorganisms. For example, genes from a fish can be transferred to a tomato plant to render the tomato plant more resistant to frost. The engineered tomato plant is genetically forced to produce

the fish chemical, because of this universal ‘gene language’. So it produces an ‘antifreeze’ chemical which the fish normally produces to survive in freezing cold water. With genetic engineering it is possible to break down the species boundaries set up by millions of years of evolution. Never before was it possible to transfer genes from animals to plants or from bacteria to humans. By combining the genes of unrelated species, permanently altering their genetic codes, novel organisms are created that will pass the genetic changes onto their offspring through heredity.
Genetic engineering is a corporate technology, mainly applied by industrial agriculture.

Organic agriculture: sustainability, markets and policies

Proceedings from an OECD Workshop, Washington DC, United States, September 2002. Organic agriculture is expanding in all OECD countries, and is one of the most rapidly developing market segments. It is no longer limited to farmers selling their produce at the farm-gate or through specialised stores, but has extended into the mainstream of the agri-food chain. It is seen by many as offering considerable benefits over other production systems, particularly with respect to sustainable development. Many countries have introduced policy measures to encourage and promote organic farming. But what exactly is the contribution of organic agriculture to sustainable development? What issues should be addressed by policies? What are governments actually doing and how effective have their actions been?

The recent OECD Workshop on Organic Agriculture examined these issues. It concluded that while organic agriculture is generally less stressful on the environment, good farm management is crucial. The economic performance of organic farms is mixed, with considerable variation in the yields achieved and the premiums received for products within and across OECD countries. This publication reveals that organic agriculture is disadvantaged by current agricultural support policies, and the proliferation of standards and labels has sometimes confused consumers and impeded trade. A key policy challenge is to ensure that both the positive and negative externalities of different agricultural production systems are taken into account.

Risk assesment contaminated soils

Nature conservation and development is often planned on contaminated soils and deserted land. Such situations call for ecological risk assessment. Alterra- part of Wageningen UR - researchers specialized in ecotoxicology have developed a methodology enabling ecological risk assessment to support decisions about nature design and management. The method assesses the ecological vulnerability in food chains, food webs and ecotopes. It was tested for six chemicals: copper, zinc, cadmium, DDT, chlorpyrifos and ivermectin. These chemicals represent a wide variety of toxic impact mechanisms and effects. The analysis can be performed for any assemblage of species and enables aquatic and terrestrial species to be compared.

This study enables a new way of ecological risk assessment by comparing the feasibility of different scenarios for wild life on contaminated soils. For any common type of contamination the most favorable option for nature development is determined. Alterra expertise to enable this was built up during many years of field research data. Additionally, the ecotoxicologist perspective adds value to the traditional laboratory research by studying the animals in their natural environment. Nature conservation and development is often planned on contaminated soils and deserted land.
The method was developed in commission of the EU, in the integrated project NoMiracle, part of the European Environmental Action Plan. This research project was started in 2004 and will be active for five years, participated by a consortium of over 35 universities, research institutes and companies. NoMiracle aims to develop new methods for ecological risk assessment of environmental contamination and other stressors. The Alterra researchers used ecological trait data for individual species to assess vulnerability in different food chains. The report suggests the use of vulnerability mapping at ecotope level and discusses criteria for adequate use of existing databases to visualize vulnerability in ecosystem receptors.

Decision Support System for nature managers
Alterra will dedicate the new method as a basis for a Decision Support System for nature managers and designers. Future users will be able to enter their data on a specific wildlife area into a software interface, which will provide them with a feasibility overview of several possible applications of the area. Only a mouse click will be needed in order to retrieve an advice, e.g. on whether to dedicate the area to aquatic or terrestrial conservation target species.

Report specifics
The research team consists of Marieke de Lange, Joost Van der Pol en Jack Faber. To the first report in this series 'Ecological Vulnerability in Wildlife' Joost Lahr contributed.

• Ecology is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and the interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment.
• Toxicology is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms.
• Ecotopes are relatively homogeneous, spatially-explicit landscape units that are useful for stratifying landscapes into ecologically distinct features for the measurement and mapping of landscape structure, function and change.

IPM in Roses

Rose export is developing rapidly. Rose growers see an urgent need for implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). It will create a competitive market advantage. Characteristics of IPM are:
• A healthy crop.
• Combination of control strategies (sanitation, biological control).
• Pesticide use is the last step.
• Reliance on own observations and experiences at the farm level.
• Combination of informal and formal research using a “grower first approach”.
IPM has been successfully applied in floriculture in other countries (such as Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).

Current Pest Control in Floriculture Currently pesticides are used, which causes concern:
• Pesticides account for 25% of expenditures.
• Export increasingly demands low residue levels.
• Pesticides are phytotoxic, and may reduce crop yield.
• Pesticides shorten the longevity of plastic cover.
• Pests develop resistance to pesticides.
• Pesticides may affect human health and environment.

Steps forward
First steps for the introduction of IPM have been taken:
• All sectors support IPM.
• Base-line surveys on flower pests have been conducted.
• Spider mites are the major problem.
• Applied rose-specific research has recently started at the Plant Protection Research Centre
• Higher education is possible at the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine
• Growers interested in biological control as well as further on-farm research have been identified.
• A standard import protocol for beneficial insects is under development.