Darim Village Residents Together with IPB University Students Utilize Biofloc Fish Cultivation as an Alternative Livelihood

Residents of Darim Village, Puntang Village, Losarang District, Indramayu Regency, West Java together with IPB University students collaborating with the youth of Forum Darim Bersatu (Forrimber) run one of the Thematic Real Work Lecture (KKNT) programs by utilizing vacant land for fish farming with a biofloc system as an alternative livelihood for residents.

This was done because the majority of Darim residents work as farmers who can only plant rice once a year with rain-fed rice fields and poor irrigation coverage.

“The position of our village at the end of the village makes access to irrigation limited, especially during the dry season. This means we can only grow rice once a year,” said Suradi, one of the villagers and chief of Forrimber who manages the biofloc fish farming system.

Ridwan Nur Hidayat, a representative of the KKNT Innovation Group in Puntang Village, said that the biofloc system utilizes microorganisms in water to process waste into natural feed for fish.

“The application of biofloc technology is also able to increase the number of stocking density, catfish survival rate, feed conversion ratio (FCR), improve water quality and shorten the length of maintenance thus increasing income. This technique is considered effective to overcome the constraints of limited irrigation water faced by the residents of Darim Village,” he said.

Ridwan continued, the type of fish cultivation that will be managed in the future is catfish, so that the harvest is not only for self-consumption, but can also be sold to local markets or food stalls to increase family income.

The IPB University students also provided training and technical assistance on fish farming with an environmentally friendly biofloc system. According to Ridwan, this activity is in line with the Climate Village Program (Proklim) and the big theme of KKNT Innovation, namely ‘Agro-Maritime Collaboration for Environmental Resilience and Sustainability’.

He hopes that the training can be a solution for the residents of Darim Village to improve their economic welfare amid the challenges of climate change, and limited irrigation that hampers agricultural production of rice commodities.

“This biofloc fish farming opens up opportunities for us to improve our family economy. The results are quite profitable and do not depend entirely on the rice harvest,” added Dulfatah, a resident of Darim Village. (*/Lp/Rz) (IAAS/PRO)