Farming in Narrow Area

Knowledge and sciences keep improving day by day. The changes from age to age is continuing and  prominent, it also happens in agriculture. In rural communities, doing farming is synonymous with vast land in uncultivated land. However, how will the urban communities do when they want to do farming? This is the concern of Pascah Hariyanto as the speaker in book review, held by Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta on Friday, March 11, 2016, at Limasan. The title of the book is 'Harvesting Vegetable Routinely in A Narrow Yard', written by Cahyo Saparinto and Hesti Dwi Setyaningrum.

This book review time was opened by Yohanes as the host and continued by Sarloce as the moderator. It began with playing games in which participants wrote seven types of vegetables which are easily planted on narrow grounds. Some participants were able to write up to seven types of vegetables but some others were not.

The discussion is interesting because some participants have already attended the session before. Nine participants and five member team of Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta were able to enliven the discussion. Pascah began the session by explaining the author, publisher, number of pages, reason why he chose the book.

Discussions getting ‘catchy’ when question and answer session came. Jerry asked what the difference between planting in sand and plain soil was. While Nuel wanted to know the simple way how to measure the acidity of soil or soil pH. Tasya asked about the type of vegetables having high nutrition.

Pascah’s explanation of these questions was as follows: First, before planting seeds, dry sand is processed with addition of cow manure, compost and the elements of fertilizer on the topsoil, then, let the soil processed fertilizers and sand. After a while, the field is ready to be planted. Second, a traditional way to measure acidity is by observing whether there are worms in the ground or not. If there are worms in the soil, the acidity of the soil is quite good. Each vegetable contains specific nutrients and each is necessary for our human body.

This book review gave a lot of understanding and perspectives toward agriculture. One alternative planting to optimize small area is hydroponics, but the simplest way of planting is using small bags by recycling plastic bottle as pot. Good luck to plant in your narrow garden. (SAP).