Stube-HEMAT’s Exposure to Joglo Tani

Saturday, April 26, 2014

On Saturday, April 26, 2014 Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta invited students to join exposure activity, an outdoor learning by visiting Joglo Tani, an integrated farming spot. Through this activity students were expected to be enlightened moreover those who don’t study agriculture. This enlightenment will ignite students’ interests in agriculture, so they are able to give support and attention to problems of agriculture as well as to develop their homeland agriculture.

Joglo Tani is a farmer community pioneered by TO Suprapto emphasizing an integrated farming systems and involving people around Joglo Tani, so they feel be part of it. The spirits of Joglo Tani are establishing village with food-soverignity, developing integrated farming system from up to downstream as a self-supplying farming system and forming society with local food-based consumption pattern.

Exposure activity began by exploring participant’s favourite food, and then calculating the average cost of their daily meal in a month. First, they answer that they consume vegetables, fried rice, fish, gado-gado and wrapped rice, and so on. After calculating their consumption, the expenditure was in the range of 300.000 to 900.000 rupiahs per month. It shows how high the expenditure of per person for food consumption, further people needs to be aware seriously of food shortages in the future. TO Suprapto provoked participants by asking questions, “What's your purpose of studying in Yogyakarta? Have you been self-supported while studying in Yogyakarta?”

He invited participants who mostly come from outside Java to see their potency and to develop it in Yogyakarta and keen to see the opportunities in their homeland. In agriculture especially, TO Suprapto emphasized that farmers are less fortunate, because they can not determine anything since preparing seeds, fertilizers and products distribution although the process needs much cost. Ironically, they could not determine the selling price of their own harvest as well.

Next, the participants were invited to walk around the Joglo Tani, to watch tilapia and carp fish pond. The water irrigation was from ditch flowing into the fish pond, then flowing into the ducklings’ cage, and to ducks’ cage and finally back to the ditch. Kale and other vegetables such as eggplant, tomatoes, lemongrass and celery were planted on the pond banks. Cow dung is used as biogas to generate electricity while cabbage and celery were planted in reused-bottles.

Yulius Lero from Sumba, studying in APMD asked, "The agricultural system here is very special. Compared to Sumba, Sumbanese is not creative yet, it is difficult to form a group in Sumba, and many vacant lands has not been cultivated in good use. How should I get it start?" TO Suprapto replied, "If you return (to Sumba) later, you must start first, give examples, make changes by yourself." Pascah, a student in STAK Marturia Yogyakarta, from East OKU, Palembang, Southern Sumatera, asked, “How to make farm activities successful and not be shunned by society. It has ever occurred that someone threw poison in the fish ponds belong to successful person in managing fisheries. It brings damage and dying of thousands fishes. How should we do to solve this problem?” TO Suprapto suggested that we should not do it alone but we should make a group and create it as a communal movement, therefore socialization is the most important thing to do. Thus, please start by replacing the word 'I' with the word 'We.' The point is collecting people, giving them motivation and having together movement. (TRU)