Wondama Agriculture Service develops banana and coffee plants

The Department of Agriculture and Food Crops of Teluk Wondama Regency, West Papua will develop two agricultural commodities that are considered suitable for the characteristics of the local community, namely bananas and coffee.

Head of the Wondama Bending Distan, Korneles Paduai in Isei, Monday, said that banana plants are not new to residents in the area.

Since ancient times, he said, residents in every village in Wondama Bay are used to growing bananas, but the management is still traditional, not professionally and sustainably managed.

"Now there are many (people's banana plantations), but none of them are properly managed. The difficult market makes people lazy to grow bananas. Some have been brought to Biak, but we haven't seen any good banana plantations," said Paduai.

Starting next year, Teluk Wondama Distan will develop banana commodities with good and sustainable management so that they can produce harvests that are acceptable to the market.

Paduai said that 7 hectares of land was available in Dotir Village, Wasior District. The location has been mapped to become a potential sustainable agricultural land (LP2B) specifically for banana commodities, especially the type of plantain.

"We have established communication with the community, they are ready to develop bananas there. The types that sell the most in the market are plantains and kapok bananas," said Paduai.

As for coffee, the development planned for next year is only a trial run. The reason is, so far there has been no academic study related to whether or not coffee plants are suitable for development in Wondama.

However, he said, the coffee plant is not a new commodity for the native Wondama considering that local residents have known coffee since the Dutch era.

The Windesi region and its surroundings were once a coffee plantation and rubber plantation.

"That's why we are trying to develop coffee which has historically been developed in Wondama, especially in Windesi. In the past, our parents never bought coffee. They used to grow coffee with rubber. Recently, cocoa has entered. So it has been known since the Dutch era," he said. Paduai.

Apart from historical reasons, he continued, coffee is an agricultural commodity that is easy to grow and also easy to maintain.

Moreover, the plant, which has the Latin name coffea, only takes two and a half years to produce so that it fits the characteristics of the local Wondama community.

In addition, coffee also has a broad market. If it is suitable to be developed in Wondama, Paduai targets coffee production to be able to meet the needs of the local market in Wondama.

SOURCE: https://papuabarat.antaranews.com/berita/15301/dinas-pertanian-wondama-kembangkan-tanaman-pisang-dan-kopi