Agricom.id, SUMEDANG - Village of Buahdua in District of Sumedang is the producer of sale pisang which has been sold to Bandung, Majalengka, and Subang. Kinds of banana that are processed to be sale are ambon dan raja. The big numbers of demands are not equal to the banana production. This could be a good opportunity for the farmers to plant banana.

Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL) keeps encouraging to produce the qualified production of agriculture by many things, such as, developing the fruit regions which have market prospect both in the fresh and process. One thing to do is by developing banana regions in District of Sumedang.

Head of Horticulture, Agriculture Agency District of Sumedang, Karnadi with the monitoring team in Sub district of Buahdua told that there are 8 groups getting the advantages of the program in 8 villages of four sub districts. One of them is Kelompok Tani Mekar I.

“This group gets the advantage. Unang Suparna has 2 hectares within about 1.900 (banana) trees. Besides the seeds, we also facilitate organic fertilizers and NPK. The planting was in November 2019,” Karnadi said.

He also mentioned that Sumedang is potential to develop banana trees in Village of Buahdua covering 50 hectares in the areas of PT. Perhutani or in the village’s areas. The sub district has 150 hectares in 14 villages. The farmers are enthusiastic to plant and develop pisang ambon kuning to fulfill the materials of sale pisang.

The helps from National Budget in 2019 were for ambon kuning banana. The groups planted the seeds in the abandoned areas.

According to the Chairman of Kelompok Tani Mekar I, Unang Suparna, the banana seeds were from the breeders in Cianjur, such as, the young tillers or humps, about 10 months old, and planted 2 × 3 meter in distance. 

“The humps were also given to other groups and they prepared the holes to plant. The farmers also deal with the dry season because they are difficult to get water. That is why they need water pump, pipes, other tools to control the weeds and post-harvest tools, better infrastructures because they are difficult to get the areas by motor to transport their harvests,” he said.

In other place, General Director of Horticulture, Ministry of Agriculture, Setyanto said that his side would do the best to increase the agricultural production both in the fresh or process namely the mainstay commodities in export level. His side also focuses to develop Gerakan Mendorong Produksi, Daya Saing dan Ramah Lingkungan (GEDOR HORTI), such as, developing banana areas in District of Sumedang.

”We would do the best to expand the planting to get the mainstay fruit harvests both in the fresh and processed products namely in Covid-19 pandemic,” the man who is familiar with Anton, said.

Director of Fruit and Floriculture, General Directorate of Horticulture, Ministry of Agriculture, Liferdi Lukman did appreciate the banana farmers in Sumedang. In the pandemic like now, they could get the qualified products. The selling of the processed commodity, such as, sale pisang could directly consumed by the people and it increases their income besides selling the fresh banana.

“We would encourage the farmers to cultivate in standard operational procedures by referring to good agricultural practices to get the products just like the markets demand on the quality and quantity,” he said. (A2)