Fertilisation as an effort to fulfil the nutritional needs of plants is one of the activities carried out in a series of field schools in Mentawai; specifically the cultivation of taro and banana. The focus of this field school is to educate Mentawai farmers to also pay attention to the cultivation process in the plant growth and development stage. Therefore, the selection of fertiliser types became one of the treatments agreed upon by participants in the field school.
In this activity, YSI acted as a facilitator and the activities were conducted in April 2023 in Saureinu Village and Nemnemleleu Village. Field school participants from both villages were the beneficiaries of this activity. Fertilisation of the field school demonstration plots was carried out as an effort to provide additional nutrients to taro and banana plants. The choice of fertiliser type was one of the treatments agreed upon by participants in the field school based on discussions conducted prior to the routine observation process.
Field school participants agreed that the types of fertiliser used were solid organic fertiliser and liquid organic fertiliser. The use of organic fertiliser in the field school treatment is one of the applications of low external input sustainable agriculture. This is done by trying to avoid the input of manufactured chemical fertilisers and pesticides which in the long run can damage the agricultural ecosystem.
The fertilisation process is carried out in two ways, namely solid organic fertiliser is sprinkled directly onto the soil with a composition on taro plants as much as 375 grams per plant and on banana plants as much as 5 kilograms per plant. While the application of liquid fertiliser is done through spraying with a spray tank that is sprayed to all parts of the plant and the soil around the plant with a mixture of 1 litre of liquid organic fertiliser for 10 litres of water.
On the sidelines of the activity, Ikbal Herdiyansyah as the project manager of the Sipora region said "So far, the field school participants in cultivating taro and banana on their respective land have not applied fertiliser at all when the plants are growing and developing. In addition, the field school participants were also very enthusiastic to see the comparison of plants in the no fertiliser treatment plots, solid organic fertiliser treatment plots, and liquid organic fertiliser treatment plots so that in the future it is hoped that they will have the expertise to choose the most suitable commodity processing formulation"
The follow-up plan in the field school process is to see the comparison of the use of fertilisers and without the use of fertilisers and prepare lessons on making vegetable pesticides to avoid pest and disease attacks on taro and banana plants in the field school plots.