Transforming Rice Straw into Biopot with Economic Value, Superior to Polybags
“Until now, damen waste (rice straw) has been used for cattle feed or burned,” said one resident of Sidorejo Village, Sukosewu District, Bojonegoro Regency, East Java, to the IPB University Homecoming Lectures (Dospulkam) team.
This phenomenon prompted the IPB University lecturer team to teach the people of Sidorejo Village how to process rice straw waste into a more useful product, namely biopot.
The team, led by Dr Siti Nikmatin, introduced the method of making geotextiles, which are sheets of material made from randomly arranged biomass fibers that have pores and are permeable to water and light. Dr Irmansyah, Rima Fitria Adiati, MT, and Abd Djamil Husin, MSi were also involved in this program.
“The geotextile produced can be used to make various derivative products, one of which is biopot. The production of biopot is expected to be one of the solutions for processing rice straw waste in the Sidorejo Village environment,” she said.
With this processing, continued Dr Siti Nikmatin, straw waste can be reused into more useful products.
Superior to Polybags
The advantage of biopots over polybags or plastic pots is their biodegradable nature, meaning they can decompose naturally as additional fertilizer, eliminating the need to replace planting media and plastic polybags.
In addition to introducing the production of geotextile biopots, the team also provided several machines to support geotextile production, namely a straw shredder, compressor, sprayer, and cutting machine.
“It is currently the rice harvest season, and there is an abundance of straw. This waste is usually only burned, with only a small portion used as animal feed, causing environmental problems. With biopot, the community can make better use of rice straw waste, either to sell or use themselves,” said Dr Siti Nikmatin.
The program has been enthusiastically received by the community. “We are very grateful to IPB for teaching us something new. With these pots, we can plant without buying polybags or pots. We hope that activities like this will continue,” said M Islah, Chair of the Karya Tani Farmer Group in Sidorejo Village. (*/Rz) (IAAS/ASY)
