A follow-up activity of organic agriculture training

Come, Learn and Practice

Wangga, September 24, 2016

Exposure is a learning process in which the participants interact and learn directly about the topic of learning. Such learning brings great benefits to the participants, because they are directly involved in the learning process in order to get experience of discovering new things. Exposure is usually held in a specific place related to the topic as the complement of the learning process itself.

The learning process in Stube-HEMAT Sumba through training on Organic Agriculture: Food Diversity which held in GKS Kawangu, East Sumba, on September 16-18, 2016 with a theme ‘Do you want to eat? Rice is not the absolute one’ was continued on Saturday, September 24, 2016 with exposure to Women Farmers Group (KWT) Rinjung Pahamu, in Wangga, Waingapu.

Twenty-four participants, mostly students, accompanied by Yulius Anawaru and Apriyanto Hangga, both were team members of Stube-HEMAT Sumba, visited this Woman Farmer Group which is chosen as the exposure destination because its independence in managing vegetable garden consisting of various types of vegetables such as beans, white vegetables (cabbage), eggplant, tomatoes, kale, papaya and gourd. Food crops is also available in the garden such as sweet potatoes (petatas), cassava and corns.

Naomi Tamar Pangambang, the leader of KWT Rinjung Pahamu invited the participants to visit the garden and discussed the farmer group. She presented the steps of cultivation and planting vegetables. First, clean the land to be used and make beds. Then sow some manure into seedbeds and leave them for two weeks. Second, while the fertilizer mixed with the soil, sow the vegetable seed into the nursery and water them regularly. The seedlings will grow in two weeks and ready to be moved to the seedbeds. Third, water the seedlings every morning and afternoon, loosen the soil and clean up the grass growing among the seedlings. Fourth, if there are symptoms of disease, spray pesticides from natural materials, such as fermentated gamal leaves, mahogany leaves, chilies and other materials. The process was carried out until the harvesting time.

After the observation and dialogue with Mrs. Naomi, the participants had lunch with corn rice, vegetables and potatoes from the garden. Actually, there are many advantages having vegetable garden independently, such as vegetables availability, healthier vegetables because of organic treatment, lower cost for buying vegetables and ability to learn in planting crops. After the exposure the participants were challenged to bring out their creative ideas utilizing their house yard into home vegetable garden.

Returning from Wangga, the participants gathered at the secretariat of Stube-HEMAT Sumba and thought what they have learned and committed to begin cultivate their yard become small garden. At the first step,  Stube-HEMAT Sumba team provided seeds of vegetables such as kale (water spinach), mustards, spinach, eggplant, gourd and sweet potatoes (petatas) and they chose their own seedlings to be planted.

Jufri Adipapa, a student of Unkriswina utilized  the yard of Stube-HEMAT Sumba’s secretariat to plant corns, chili, eggplant and melon. Marten Rangga Mbani, one of the participants from STT Terpadu who lived in Mboka Waingapu planted spinach, green mustards, spinach and petatas. He harvested well green mustards but not for the water spinach because of lack of water, while it still needs time for harvesting sweet potatoes. Yati and Meli in STT GKS Lewa harvested sweet potatoes, while Desri and Naomi in Waingapu had crop failure because their vegetables were eaten by goats.

The success and failure in agriculture are part of learning. Keep the spirit and keep on trying. Learn from the agriculture experiences to reach independence and diversity of agriculture in our home. (TRU).