Paringin – Balangan Regency has a lot of natural wealth. Apart from being in the form of coal, Balangan also has an abundance of nuftah plasma (Hulticultural genetic resources). This statement was explained by the Head of Food Crops for the Balangan Regency Agriculture Service, Rizkianor Fauzi, Wednesday (23/9/2020).
Rizkianor said that the Porang plant which has been considered a weed by the community, Ubi Porang is also disliked by rats and pigs.
“Ubi Porang is a sweet potato that has promising economic prospects. For the price per kilo, for Porang sweet potato which has not been processed at all, the price is around Rp.4,000 – Rp.10,000 per kilogram, while half-finished Porang or chips are priced at Rp.10,000 -Rp.17,000, per kilogram, “said Rizki.
He further explained, Balangan Government through the Agriculture Office in an effort to explore the economic potential of Porang sweet potato to form an alliance or community of Porang sweet potato.
To date, the alliance has around 30 members who are scattered throughout the Districts in Balangan Regency.
“Through this community, we hope to facilitate the Porang farmers in Balangan Regency in terms of training and how to properly control and properly care for Porang sweet potato.
With proper control and proper care, it will produce sweet potatoes with good quality. Balangan Regency itself has produced about 70 tons per year in the form of chips.” he said.
Ubi Porang Rizki said that next year the Agriculture Service would cooperate with Balangan Regional Research and Development Agency, in the form of procuring equipment to process Porang sweet potato.
“So that with this tool, the price of Porang sweet potato will be stable and maybe it will increase. Since Balangan has been selling products made of Porang sweet potato, which has made it an export commodity.” he concluded.
Just to note, Porang sweet potato has a planting period of between 6 months of planting to 2 years of planting, depending on the seeds planted. In addition, this Porang sweet potato can be processed into the main ingredient for making flour, a cosmetic ingredient.
Anang Fadhilah/Irfan
