Hello and welcome to my blog where I will be sharing my thoughts and opinions about interesting environmental issues related to the agricultural world. A little (maybe not so) about myself, I was born in Indonesia where my love for agriculture was nurtured since young. But over the past few years, I became more concern about the environment especially after hearing many unpleasant news about flooding, deforestation, lost of diversity, and other unsustainable/irresponsible environmental practices that happened not only in Indonesia, but also in other parts of the world. As such, I want to dedicate this blog to discuss how the environment and agriculture are not two separate entities, but rather a very complex, dynamic, and interdependent system where a change in one will affect the other in many ways.
During my 8-month break in-between Junior College and University, I was compelled/inspired to start on a project to initiate an online education platform to teach basic agricultural practices to the Indonesians through the use of video animations and graphical information (you can find the website at www.fu-indonesia.org. Do note that the language used is in Bahasa Indonesia considering the main target audience). Here is the screenshot of my webpage's main menu:
This project started when I was collaborating with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to volunteer as one of their Bahasa Indonesia translators to narrate animated educational videos in my mother tongue, such as, "Preparation of Neem Seeds as Pesticides", "Making Compost", and "Post-harvest losses".
Seeing a decent response from the locals, I began to translate many more educational videos that include, but not limited to, prawn farming, broiler production, stevia, and the basic concept of aquaponics. However, in the process of developing these contents, I discovered one of the most important foundations that can sustain any forms of agriculture practices: a well-maintained environment.
For instance, in the case of horticulture and traditional potato farming, I learned that crop rotations are necessary to sustain subsequent high-yielding harvests. The practice of crop rotations primarily helps potato farmers to reduce losses caused by pests (nematodes) and to minimize their spread to other arable lands that are being utilized for different types of common crops. As a result, farmers' intensive expenditures on pesticides can be minimized and stresses on the immediate environment/non-pest organisms can be alleviated.
That is all from me from now, stay tuned for more interesting articles, reflections, and critiques to journal articles that I will be sharing using my personal voice if necessary! Hope you can learn, grow, acquire news perspectives on the environment and the world of agriculture.
Seeing a decent response from the locals, I began to translate many more educational videos that include, but not limited to, prawn farming, broiler production, stevia, and the basic concept of aquaponics. However, in the process of developing these contents, I discovered one of the most important foundations that can sustain any forms of agriculture practices: a well-maintained environment.
For instance, in the case of horticulture and traditional potato farming, I learned that crop rotations are necessary to sustain subsequent high-yielding harvests. The practice of crop rotations primarily helps potato farmers to reduce losses caused by pests (nematodes) and to minimize their spread to other arable lands that are being utilized for different types of common crops. As a result, farmers' intensive expenditures on pesticides can be minimized and stresses on the immediate environment/non-pest organisms can be alleviated.
That is all from me from now, stay tuned for more interesting articles, reflections, and critiques to journal articles that I will be sharing using my personal voice if necessary! Hope you can learn, grow, acquire news perspectives on the environment and the world of agriculture.
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