(Unila): Satria Ladiba, one the Unila students demonstrated the process of making liquid organic fertiliser. He first poured out liquid organic fertiliser (POC) that has been fermented for two weeks.
The thick, yellow-brown liquid then flowed from the pot into a small bucket, looking clean and without spreading foul odours. Dozens of participants were paying close attention to the fertiliser made from a mixture of goat manure, molasses and EM4.
The fermentation process is deemed successful when the colour of the POC solution turns yellow-brown, and when neither maggots nor foul smell is found.
The student majoring in soil studies at the Faculty of Agriculture, Unila, deliberately brought a sample of liquid organic fertiliser in the forms of goat manure and molasses as basic substances of POC production.
The POC and Biosaka were created by Satria Ladiba and his colleagues, Alex Sandro Nainggolan, Ida Septiani Anjelica, Intan Wulandari, Lulu Wahyu Utami, Nia Jessica Lona, and Nur’aini Elsyifa Putri.
The aimed at providing the farmers with knowledge and skills in making POC and Biosaka so that they had capability of generating their own fertiliser.
POC is made of goat or cow manure and molasses and it is mixed with agricultural EM4 as decomposing bacteria, and water. All ingredients are mixed until evenly distributed and put into a tightly closed container, fermentation lasts for 14 days under anaerobic conditions (without oxygen).
Unlike POC, Biosaka is made from fresh green grass and the extract of leaves free from by pests, fungi, and viruses. It is a plant extract solution as an elicitor that can increase plant productivity.
Biosaka contains hormones, spores, and bacteria that can spur the formation of secondary metabolites so that plants have resistance to pathogens and grow more fertile.
The use of biosaka in plant cultivation is also one of the efforts to protect ecologically-based plants to preserve the environment. Biosaka is mixed with water and sprayed on the leaves of plants once for every ten days. [PR Team]
