Four Corn Farmers in Lamongan Regency Will Share Knowledge with Farmers in Papua

Four corn farmers from Bluri Village, Solokuro District, Lamongan Regency, will be dispatched to Papua to pass on their knowledge to farmers in Eastern Indonesia.

The plan for the departure of the four Lamongan corn farmers began with a visit by the Head of the Community Development Corps of the Indonesian National Police Security Maintenance Agency (Kakorbinmas Baharkam Polri), Inspector General of Police Suwondo Nainggolan, to conduct a comparative study on corn farming in Bluri Village.

Suwondo said that the comparative study on corn farming was carried out as a preparation for the implementation of the plantation development program in the Papua region.

"This program is not the first, we previously conducted training on livestock raising in the Solo area, and currently we are focusing on corn because we plan to develop a corn plantation in the Papua region, for that we need to conduct comparative studies and research," said Suwondo, Tuesday. (7/6/2022).

The senior police officer explained that Lamongan was chosen as the study objective, because Lamongan is one of the areas that has the largest corn production in Indonesia.

"We chose Lamongan as a place to study or adhere to, because based on the data we have studied it is known that Lamongan is famous for its corn. Besides that, the traffic is also easy, because we have to be efficient. Moreover, our costs are financed by the state, so everything must run as effectively as possible ," he said.

From this visit to Bluri Village, it was decided that there were 4 corn farmers who would go to Papua for 3 months with direct assistance by one of the officers from the Lamongan Police, to provide knowledge about the procedures for planting corn to farmers in Papua.

"Earlier we spoke with Mr. Kades Bluri, Mr. Kapolres and agricultural officers here, they are happy to transfer their knowledge and skills to us and our brothers and sisters in Papua in terms of corn farming," he said.

Suwondo hopes that the people in Papua will be able to really understand the correct way of planting corn, so that the resulting corn plants can be good and be able to provide welfare for the Papuan people.

"We thank the people of Lamongan, especially the farmers in Bluri Village, for being willing to help us. There (Papua) already has 200 hectares of land that has been granted management rights. But at the beginning, we will only open 20 hectares. Later it will become a work training center so that they can all gain knowledge. Hopefully everything will run smoothly," said Suwondo.

Meanwhile, the Head of Bluri Village, Heru Sukadri, said that his party would be ready to help plant corn in Papua.

On that occasion, Heru explained that in Bluri Village there are about 700 corn farmers who harvest twice every year.

"In one harvest, corn farmers in Bluri Village are able to produce around 8 to 9 tons per hectare. For operational costs per hectare, the farmers need around Rp. 9 million. These costs are calculated from planting to post-harvest," said Heru.

Meanwhile, the profit obtained by farmers, said Heru, is about 60 percent of the harvest on average. He revealed that currently the price of corn is in the range of IDR 4,700 per kilogram, down from the first harvest, which cost IDR 5,300.

Right now the weather is still supportive, maybe the obstacle is the rats and snakes," he said.

Just to note, in carrying out a comparative study in Bluri Village for the development of plantations in Papua, the National Police Headquarters of Baharkam, Inspector General of Police Suwondo Nainggolan accompanied by the Lamongan Police Chief, AKBP Miko Indrayana, Head of Binmas AKP Turkhan Badri and agricultural officers from Lamongan Regency.