Students of IPB Assist Villagers to Utilize Caisin Wastes for Animal Feeds
Caisin (Brassica chinenchis L.). waste can be processed into animal feed. This breakthrough is a collaboration between Cibitung Tengah Village Community, Tenjolaya Subdistrict, Bogor Regency and Biochemical Profession Association, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of Bogor Agricultural University (FMIPA-IPB), which is implementing village development programmes.
As the population of Bogor is growing, the food demand for this area is increasing, including vegetables. Solutions are needed to increase agricultural productivity, especially vegetable to supply the higer demands. Vegetables are an important part of Indonesian diets, usually spiced, and served at the main meal along with rice, as ingredients in a soup, with one or two cooked dishes (meat, seafood, tempeh or tofu), and as sambals, spicy condiments made with chili and shallot. As located in Bogor, farmers in Cibitung Tengah village do a lot of vegetable farming, especially the caisin to supply the demands. The communities facing problems with overcoming caisin agriculture. Bina Desa, named CREB's On Action, it is the agriculture outreach professionals are doing their best to provide clear and accurate information, to apply the knowledge gained to develop the potential of the community. This annual event is packaged in the concept of village development in 2017. Chief Program Officer, Zulfikar Muchamad explained, "Grand Launching CREB's On Action agenda will be scheduled in September 2017. While the socialization has been carried out since last June. The series of activities include training the making of silage from waste caisin, fish pond management and discussion with the community with the team of bina desa related problems encountered in Cibitung Tengah Village. Part of the program will be the utilization of caisin wastes as a source of feed.
Up to now, the caisin wastes are only converted into green manure for their lands. However, farmers do not know that they can preserving caisin in the form of silage and using them as feedstuff for livestock. Caisin waste is combined with silage base material i.e. rice straw. Silage itself is known as a preserved animal feed made from crop residues through a fermentation process. This feed has a high enough durability and full of nutrients. "It is therefore important for people to know how to cultivate their livestock. If at any time forage feeds thinned or in an emergency, this silage acts as an available substitute feed, "said Zulfikar. For the silage-making training course for utilizing caisin wastes, CREB's On Action will cooperate with the Himpunan Profesi Ilmu Produksi dan Teknologi Peternakan (the Association for Professions of Animal Production Science and Technology) of the Faculty of Animal Science of Bogor Agricultural University (FAPET IPB).
The CREB's On Action event is open to all IPB students who wish to join. The Cibitung Tengah village will be the targeted village, but the activities undertaken per year change according to the needs of the village community. "It is expected that the program will improve the established relationships between the Cibitung Tengah communities with students IPB, especially of the Department of Biochemistry of FMIPA IPB. In addition, the proposed project will the platform for students of IPB to do their outreach programmes for the villagers by applying the knowledge they learned in the university, "said Zulfikar. (Wied)
