Wafer made of Water Hyacinth Created by A Group of IPB Students Won the First Winner in Taiwan Writing Competition
The team of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) consisting of Andriyani P (Faculty of Animal Husbandry), Latiful Akbar (Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences), and Yoga Rivaldi (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ir Yuli Retnani, MSc, successfully won the first winner in the Asian Pacific Agriculture Student Summit and Undergraduate Project Competition 2017 in Taiwan, on 23-25 November 2017. Andriyani and the team created livestock feed wafers from water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), is an aquatic plant native to the Amazon basin, and is often a highly problematic invasive species outside its native range. The direct effects of water hyacinth invasion are degradation and/or disruption of ecosystem services, including transportation, hydropower operations and fisheries.
The Asian Pacific Agriculture Student Summit and Undergraduate Project Competition 2017 is an annual event organized by the International College, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, with the cooperation between Ministry of Education of Taiwan, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, the Research Center for Energy Technology and Strategy of the National Cheng Kung University, and International Affairs National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.
"There are three topics for competition, namely Agriculture and Life Science, Engineering and Energy, and Management and Humanities. The team that passed the initial selection were 38 teams from 8 countries "Said Latif.
Paper of Andriyani and the team was on Wacifer (Water Hyacinth Wafer): The Utilization of Eichhornia crassipes as Ruminant Feed Wafer to control Water Hyacinth that infest and cover most part of Rawa Pening Lake, Indonesia. This paper won the 1st place in the category of Agriculture and Life Science.
Wacifer is a feed for ruminants in the form of wafers. Wacifer itself was adopted from the work of Prof. Dr. Ir Yuli Retnani, a researcher from the Faculty of Animal Husbandry of IPB, the wafer of animal feed that was granted patent previously. There are some materials that Andriyani and her team formulated.
"We chose water hyacinth because of water hyacinth has covered Rawa Pening Lake, Central Java. Almost 70% of the water surface in the Pening swamp is covered by water hyacinth. This negatively affects the ecosystem there. Although water hyacinth continues to cause serious disruptions in the use of water bodies in Indonesia, especially Rawa Pening, Central Java, the government has not promptly moved to contain the spread of this weed. Their physical presence hinders human activity and interferes with the ecological functioning of the water ecosystems. The most severe problems are caused by free-floating species that are able to form moving, impenetrable mats. Research had been carried out on the utilization of water hyacinth for handicrafts, charcoal briquettes, biogas as well as fertilizers, but not yet effective, "said Andriyani.
In addition to water hyacinth sh also added organic waste in Wacifer formula as to meet the nutrition of feed for ruminants.
"We expect that further research will be carried out to improve the utilization of water hyacinth for animal feed, not only water hyacinth but also the utilization of other plants to improve the nutritional value of ruminants feed ingredients," explained Andriyani, who dreamed to be herbal breeder. (Wied)
