Cianjur, – The Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) through the Agricultural Research and Development Agency (Balitbangtan) continues to spur innovation in ornamental plant technology to boost export quality and volume as well as increase foreign exchange. In addition, various superior varieties of ornamental plants produced through research will also have a broad impact and improve the welfare of the community.
Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Syahrul Yasin Limpo said that his party continues to make breakthroughs, one of which is by exposing innovations of ornamental plants that have high potential to grow in Indonesian nature, both high and lowlands. Currently, Indonesia has various typical ornamental plant varieties that are very much needed and even in demand by almost all countries in the world such as Japan, Asia, Saudi Arabia, Arab, England, Europe and in America.
“The development of exports while we are planning is getting stronger and more productive. Like our chrysanthemum, we have generated a large amount of foreign exchange. The Ministry of Agriculture has also made an innovation that chrysanthemums can only be planted in the highlands and can now be planted in the lowlands,” said the Minister of Agriculture Syahrul at the event. exposure to ornamental plant innovations at the Ornamental Plant Research Institute (Balithi), Balitbangtan, Cipanas, Thursday (12/11/20).
Syahrul said the development of ornamental plants was in line with the government’s efforts to encourage export of superior commodities as a source of foreign exchange. Among the horticultural crops that are commercially developed in Indonesia, floricultural crops have very high export potential. At this time the preferences of the international market began to change towards tropical ornamental plants.
“This provides opportunities for domestic entrepreneurs, given the very high potential for tropical ornamental plant development in Indonesia because Indonesia has the largest genetic wealth of floriculture in the world,” he explained.
“The development of the floriculture industry requires continuous innovation support in the form of new superior varieties and supporting technology. The availability of superior innovation is a key factor in the development of the floriculture sub-sector,” said Syahrul.
Furthermore, Syahrul said that in the future the Ministry of Agriculture would take a bigger step in presenting various agricultural commodity activities that were more focused, more advanced with various research results, then more modern. This step is certainly part of the efforts to make the community independent so that it can grow well throughout Indonesia.
“Research and development is important to me. The country that is left behind is because of its lagging R&D. Why Japan can be better, why does Taiwan have better research, because it has better quality research because the country facilitates it so that research is growing and it becomes a measure,” he said.
In addition, Syahrul emphasized, amid the Covid 19 pandemic, the growth of agricultural and agricultural commodity exports became the highest growth contributor to the Indonesian economy. Therefore, the agricultural sector has enormous strength and the sector that is best equipped to support macroeconomic growth.
“If you want to make a plane or you want to build a car or if you want to make a television, it is still a long time, so the most ready thing is agriculture at this time. Therefore, research is the main thing in advancing competitive agriculture,” he explained.
“Through this ornamental plant innovation exposure, stakeholders can communicate which is followed up with the initiation of cooperation in the field of innovation development, including technology commercialization,” said Syahrul.
Head of Balitbangtan, Fadjry Djufry added that the Ornamental Plant Innovation Expose activity could be a vehicle for meetings between ornamental plant stakeholders in the context of accelerating floricultural innovation for welfare and urban farming that is modern, independent and competitive. In the last five years, he continued, floriculture research activities have resulted in superior innovations that can be developed by users to support the development of floriculture agribusiness.
“Until now, about 268 new superior varieties of ornamental plants have been produced, consisting of varieties of chrysanthemums, orchids, lilies, anthuriums, roses, gladiolus, gerbera, tapeinochilus, zingiber, alpinia, carnations, tuberose, and impatiens. In fact, in 2010 , Balithi won the MURI record as the institution releasing the most varieties in one year with 25 varieties, “he said.
Fadjry explained that other technological innovations are in vitro ornamental plant seed propagation technology, orchid seed massization through bioreactor-based somatic embryogenesis technology, night break technology, fertilization, and integrated pest / disease control. Currently, the superior products of Gliokompos and Bio Nutri have been patented and licensed, and even the Puspita Nusantara varieties have been exported abroad such as Japan, Jeddah and Kuwait.
“The Balithi superior product is able to provide considerable economic benefits and social impact. The superior varieties of Balithi chrysanthemum, for example, are able to replace about 35 percent of the total varieties circulating in the domestic market. In addition, Balithi through UPBS has distributed as many chrysanthemum sources 7 million seeds, which is 30 percent of the total number of seeds in circulation, “he said.
It should be noted that technological innovations that support the development of Balithi chrysanthemums have an impact on the production increase of 18 to 20% of the national chrysanthemum production. If converted into an overall ICRI technology innovation (varieties, seeds, production technology), in the past 5 years, IRI has contributed to the Indonesian floriculture industry of IDR 311.6 billion, with a value of RoI (Return of Investment) 2, 30.
On the same occasion, Member of Commission IV DPR RI, Endang Setyawati Thohari said that she was very proud to see the results of research from the Ministry of Agriculture Balitbang and fully supports the program of the Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo in encouraging agricultural technology innovation to increase competitive production. Therefore, Commission IV DPR RI fully encourages additional budget for the Ministry of Agriculture in the field of genetic engineering or R&D.
“The DPR will provide support for the need to increase the budget because currently the budget at the Agricultural Research and Development Agency is very low, only 5 percent of the entire budget for the ministry of agriculture,” he said.
“I represent a member of Commission IV DPR RI want to encourage genetic engineering of this flower to be even more popular and can be developed for future export to other countries,” added Endang.
Anang Fadhilah
