Strategies for Farmers to Increase Productivity and Food Production

The role of farmers is very important in efforts to increase food production, because there is still a yield gap between the yield obtained by farmers and the yield of research or demonstration plots. In addition, there are still yield gaps between locations and between growing seasons and also there are still vacant/sleeping lands that have not been utilized. The existence of a yield gap indicates the possibility of increasing productivity, which when together with the increase in harvest area opens opportunities for increased production. Propaktani episode 1093 organized by APPERTANI discusses Strategies for Farmers to Increase Productivity and Food Production. Dr. Suwandi, Director General of Food Crops in his keynote speech outlined steps that can be taken to increase food production and better governance to increase income and ensure the sustainability of farming. The moderator of this webinar episode was Prof. Dr. Syamsul Bahri, MS, Secretary and APPERTANI expert team.

Prof. Dr. Ir. Suyamto, MS., APPERTANI Food Crop Cultivation Expert Team delivered the topic: “Dry Land: “Strengthening Farmer Tips to Increase Food Crop Production””. Food crop farmers have very diverse characteristics in terms of area of ownership, type of land as well as capacity / knowledge or level of education. The age of farmers is dominated by elderly farmers, although millennial farmers are starting to appear recently. Farmers who want to try technology on their own land are very rare, maybe because of the small land holder, so they don’t want to take risks. Responsivity and activeness in seeking infotech are diverse, in addition to cooperation between farmers in the application of technology is still low. In general, irrigated rice field farmers are relatively more advanced than non-irrigated rice field farmers. With years of farming experience, basically farmers already have tips / strategies to increase production, especially in terms of applying high-quality seed technology. But it still needs to be established and massive, even in some things still need to be straightened out such as the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Increased understanding and application of balanced fertilization technology and rational use of pesticides according to the principles of integrated pest management are still very necessary.

Prof. Dr. Soemarno, APPERTANI’s Food Crop Improvement Expert Team delivered material on the topic: “Rice Check Adoption to Increase National Rice Production”. Rice Check (RC) is the management of rice cultivation technology based on the best choice of adaptive technology, which is accompanied by counseling and ensuring its application. It has effectively increased rice yield in Australia from 6 t/ha to 9 t/ha, and has also been implemented in the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam. RC objectives: (1) provide an optimal growing environment for rice; (2). obtain optimal / maximum yields; (3). research/look for inhibiting factors in rice productivity; (4). examining the factors/components of high yield determining technology; (5). obtain good rice growth and yield evenly throughout the expanse; (6) increase rice productivity of each regional region, and national rice productivity. RCs are structured based on: (1) the best proven technology in the region; (2) from the experience of champion farmers in the region; (3) correct and proven research results; (4) from widely applicable experience and (5) the best researcher-extension-farmer agreement.