Professor Of IPB Advises Farmers To Prioritize Using Organic Pupuk

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Professor from IPB University Iswandi Anas advised farmers to use organic fertilizer as the main fertilizer in their agriculture because it has far more benefits than chemical fertilizers. "We should use organic fertilizer as the main fertilizer, not NPK fertilizer. Why? Because organic fertilizer has 16 nutrients needed by plants," Iswandi said in a written statement in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Monday, November 7. He described organic fertilizers as richer in benefits for plants and soil. Organic fertilizer has 16 nutrients in it, much more than NPK inorganic fertilizers, which only contain three nutrients, namely nitrogen (N), phospor (P), and potassium (K). In detail, the nutrients in organic fertilizer are C, H, O, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Cu, Zn, Bo, Mo, Cl, Fe, and Mn. According to Iswandi, organic fertilizers have the ability to improve soil properties. "Then organic fertilizer improves almost all of the soil properties, physical, chemical, and biological properties. While chemical fertilizer does not, it only fixes the availability of N, P, K," said Iswandi. In addition, organic fertilizer has a positive impact on renic organisms that support soil fertility, such as worms, bacteria, and fungi which greatly affect plant growth. "Meanwhile, the NPK cannot increase the number of earthworms and so on," he said. From an economic perspective, continued Iswandi, farmers can produce their own organic fertilizer so that it does not need to depend on the existence of synthetic fertilizers whose prices continue to creep up. "So, once again, the term main fertilizer should be organic fertilizer, not NPK fertilizer. Hopefully it will be known by all farmers, officials, so that the policies that are born can support that organic fertilizer is the main fertilizer. Not the NPK," said Iswandi. Previously, on various occasions, the Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo invited farmers and the younger generation to produce domestically made organic fertilizers. One of the initiators of organic fertilizers, Ansar, said that organic fertilizers can circulate at low and easy agricultural costs. "Hopefully it will become a profession for young Indonesians in the future," said Ansar.