Scientific Orations by Nine Professors of IPB are completed now for this Year
Following the scientific oration of three professors in IPB on 18 September namely Prof. Ari Purbayanto with the title "Realizing Environmentally Friendly Fishing Technology for Sustainable Fisheries in Indonesia, Prof. Erliza with the title "The Role of Argoindustry Technology in the Development of Downstream Oil Palm Industries", and Prof. Sumarjo with the title "Extension Toward Development of Human and Social Capital in Realizing Public Health", and on 25 September another scientific oration of three professors: Prof. Aida Vitayala Hubeis with the title "Mainstreaming Gender and Development: The Role of Communication", Prof. Bambang Juanda with the title "Experimental Economics to Development of an Economic Theory and Policy Assessment" and Prof. Muladno with the title "Reforming the Livestock Breeding in Securing the availability of Livestock Breeds in Indonesia,” on the 2nd of October IPB completed the event of this year 2010 with the scientific oration of the last three professors; they are Endriatmo Soetarto with the title of speech “Agrarian Reform: A change towards a Welfare, Just and Democratic Indonesia”, Prof. Budi Mulyanto with the title of speech “Development of Social Science towards Soil for Justice and People’s Welfare” and Prof. Arief Boediono with the title of speech “Embryonic Biotechnology: From Basic Sciences to Modern Technology”.
Prof. Endriatmo in his speech of agrarian reform in Indonesia emphasized that although more than a decade has passed since the reform, Indonesia is still experiencing uncertainty. As a result of bad practices such as corruption, degraded bureaucracy ethics, law mafia and other forms of crime, distrust has emerged among the people against the elites of the country, which creates doubt against the state itself. "Therefore, the roles of the state should be revitalized to be able to maintain public confidence on the authenticity of political will of the state elites to be consistent with theirs historical mandate. When Indonesia became independent, the state as a nation organization accepted the mandate to meet people’s basic rights and ensure a fair and equitable distribution of national wealth as well as the security for all citizens under a just obedience to the law," explained the Professor of the Department of Science and Community Development Communication, Faculty of Human Ecology (FEMA), IPB.
Agrarian colonization through the control of foreign capital owners and feudalistic landlords over agrarian resources in the homeland and the mobilization of the people by force as cheap labor for the production of export commodities, according to Prof. Endriatmo, has made the Indonesian people oppressed on their own land. He said there are three forms of inequality caused by colonial and feudalistic agrarian structures. The first is the structural inequality of soil ownership or control on a large scale by private foreign owners and feudalistic landlords. The second is the unequal allocation of land use, for example, the stipulation that the production forests are for the extraction of forest products and for the interest of the colonial government. And the third inequality is as the result of incompatibility in agrarian perception and conception between colonial rulers who use the concepts of Western positive law and the local communities or indigenous people who adopt the land rights based on tradition and culture.
Therefore, if the country is to end the agrarian colonization and overcome rural poverty, then there is no choice but to give poor people assets in the form of resources of life, especially land. The provision of such asset must of course be followed by improvement towards a better access to capital, technology, markets, and assistance to ensure the people’s stronger empowerment. It is in this framework the importance of the agrarian reform as a solution to the structural problems faced by farmers. The agrarian reform must be made as a national agenda and the state’s basic strategy to build a more egalitarian and just political, economic and social structure. This is where the linkage between nation’s development and state’s development lies.
In closing, Prof. Endriatmo expressed hope/optimism that the birth of Presidential Instruction No. 1/2001 containing the assignment by the President to BPN RI (National Land Board) to prepare PP Agrarian Reform, Land Bill, Draft Law of Land Acquisition and PP. 11/2010 concerning the Control of Abandoned Land could provide opportunities to landless farmers and small-scale farmers to acquire land. This policy is also expected to reduce the gap in land control between the social strata and it is possible as long as it is seriously framed by the political will and spirit to organize and update the control of agrarian resources.
Meanwhile Prof. Budi Mulyanto in his speech explained that the role of soil as the basic matrix of life support system is not fully understood by many people, including students. The understanding taught in the soil science has so far been only of the technical aspects, but little discussion of other aspects. The land dimension is not just physical, but the various dimensions of life are all related to land. For such purpose is, according to him, an understanding of soil science.
The increased number of population on the earth causes more pressure on land. Life on the earth surface does not only need food and energy, but also requires land for settlement and infrastructure for their activities. Population increase has caused land scarcity that appears to increase continuously because the earth size is relatively fixed. This condition increases the intensity and frequency of problems related to soil such as poverty, unemployment, inequality of land tenure and use, environmental degradation, scarcity of food and energy, as well as disputes and conflicts. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop soil sciences by strengthening the understanding of soil aspects: nature, dimensions, values and roles of soil resources as agrarian resources to support life, in relation to both aspects of agriculture and other aspects of life.
Given the multi-faceted relationship between soil and life, it is necessary that the development of soil science be directed to the multi-dimensional and holistic perspective of land as the basic matrix of life support system. Such development of soil science is much needed for restructuring the relationship between soil and life, especially the arrangement of land control and use to strengthen the agrarian reform as the efforts to realize land for justice and welfare.
Prof. Arief Boediono began his speech by explaining that a female cow is born with the follicle potential to carry approximately 150,000 oocytes. During its life on average a cow can only give birth to no more than 10 youngs. Similarly, in every ejaculation a male cow potentially produces approximately 2×109 sperm per milliliter. It can have a healthy ejaculation twice a week. For a normal fertilization and production of embryos, only one sperm is needed to fertilize an oocyte. "So where are the potential oocyte and sperms that are produced in large number by the female and males?" he asked.
The science of embryology that was initially to study more about the natural development of an individual, according to him, is now developing towards an engineering technology, which is then known as embryo biotechnology. The development of embryo biotechnology provides opportunities to optimize the development process as an effort to increase benefits without disrupting the physiological growth. The engineering technology in question involves engineering in the development stage of gametes and embryos.
Speaking opportunities and challenges in the development of embryonic biotechnology, according to Prof. Ariel, it is very necessary to have the support of basic research with a cellular and sub-cellular approach and molecular biology. This is important to strengthen the empirical data from the embryo biotechnology applications in both biomedical and clinical fields. Furthermore, he said, the development of cryopreservation technology allows the storage of cell as genetic banks or banks of cells (for cell therapy and diagnostic purposes.) Certain cells can be produced continuously and stored in frozen forms, and then they can be used any time as required in the future.
The availability of professional human resources and growing research will have a positive impact on services in handling the problems of infertility in humans. A development is needed of a study program in embryology expertise in cooperation with associations in the field of in vitro fertilization.
Prof. Arief now hopes that it is the time to develop a biomedical study program at the Bogor Agricultural University in an effort to develop biomedical knowledge extensively in which embryo biotechnology becomes one support to strengthen such development. "In the concept of One World One Health, the development of medical biotechnology in the field of veterinary by using model animals is inseparable from the development of biotechnology in humans. In the future, the application and development of stem cell technology and xenotransplatation will increasingly integrate the development of medical fields in both veterinary and human," he said. He also stressed that the globalization in the development of science and technology especially embryonic biotechnology will shorten the distance between the development of basic veterinary sciences and medical applications, especially for human medical purposes. If science began to intersect with the law and religion, we need a set of ethical norms, rather than restrict the development and utilization of biotechnology in an effort to maintain order and balance in life (mtd).
