The
air temperature at the seashore is hotter and drier than in the middle and
highlands. Most farmers do not do farming activities in high and hot temperatures,
but what Welem did is the contrary. Currently, Welem (37) decided to start an
agricultural business in 2012. His former job was an employee at PT. Kapas and
worked at PT. Gold Wangga Meti. These two corporate companies suffered from a
setback and finally stopped the production activities. In this condition, Welem
and his co-workers lost their job and their income was cut off. Finally, he
decided to work on horticultural farming. The beginning of this business left
stories of failures, but for Welem the failures were valuable experiences for
learning, self-evaluation, and a stepping stone to bounce back.
There
were several obstacles that Welem faced when starting a business, such as a
lack of knowledge of seeds, pest and disease control, plant nutrition (lack of
understanding of horticultural cultivation techniques). There were several
important points conveyed by Welem in this discussion, namely: 1) Being a
farmer must be based on innovation so that we can achieve the maximum
production rate, 2) Never be ashamed of this work. Currently, many young people
are ashamed to work as farmers, therefore they avoid this job, 3) Doing
brainstorm to lift the degree of farmers as motivation for themselves to engage
in agricultural business, because the income is not much different from those
who work in institutions, 4) Do not be afraid of market demand, farmers should
have a market calendar and planting calendar to reach the volume of production
and the market demands, 5) Farmers always have time both for business and
development, and for their families. Therefore happy farmers are shown by
physical characteristics of the chubby figure and bright face.
The
discussion held on the Laipori fields (28/11/2020) was attended by ten
enthusiastic participants, because besides listening to the interesting
explanations from the presenters they could also see the surrounding fields
filled with fruit plants, also enjoy the fresh watermelons that were served.
Besides students, there were teachers, farmers, and members of the church
council. From these different professional backgrounds, they have one goal to
learn how to be independent for the food supply in Sumba.
One
of the elders in the discussion, Bora Ghunu (65) gave his advice, "If you
want to live, don't be lazy, having graduated from schools, you must return to
agriculture work". He intended to motivate the young participants who
attended this training. Agricultural business is a lively business, considering
the current condition that most of the young people are not working as farmers
so that many potencies in real sectors are left unmanaged. Get the spirit on
farming, young people! ***
Comments
Post a Comment