The existence of scavengers in Indonesia has an important role in waste management. On the other hand, they are still underestimated and closely related to poverty. Their income from this profession is often only enough for their daily needs or even less. Jati Padang Poncol sub-district is one of the areas in South Jakarta which is dominated by people with a low economic level and most of them make their living as scavengers.
The need to have abilities or other skills that are useful in supporting the lives of residents in the area has encouraged the Community Service Team (Pengmas) of the Faculty of Pharmacy (FF) of the Universitas Indonesia to carry out empowerment through the use of limited land urban agriculture using aquaponics and fish farming in bucket (budikdamber) techniques. Based on field data conducted by the FFUI Community Service Team, it was found that there were at least 80 heads of families who survived by scavenging.
Aquaponics and budikdamber are systems for cultivating fish and vegetables simultaneously in one cultivation ecosystem in buckets. So far, agriculture and fisheries in the Jati Padang Poncol area have not been carried out optimally. This is because the land area is narrow and prone to flooding thus why the existing land is not utilized properly.
Therefore, it is hoped that the existence of an aquaponic agricultural education program using the budikdamber technique can be a solution for agriculture and fisheries on narrow and flood-prone land, such as in the Jati Padang Poncol area. Apart from that, the results of this cultivation can also become a source of food for the community as well as an effort to green the city.
“Aquaponics and budikdamber were chosen as urban farming techniques for limited land in this area, because they are easy to care for, are quite cheap, do not take up a lot of land/space, and have economic value which can be used by the community as a source of additional income. Moreover, the results of cultivation in the form of fish and vegetables have the potential to help increase the independent supply of food and nutrition for local communities,” said apt. Roshamur Cahyan Forestrania, M.Sc., Ph.D who is the Head of the FFUI Community Service Team. This community service also collaborated with the Saungelmu community, which is a community that operates in the field of community development and education in the local area.
The activity began with handing over the seeds to the local community representative and also the head of the Saungelmu community, namely Erwin Saleh. The fish and vegetable seeds provided were catfish, catfish, snakehead fish, Siamese sepat fish, kale and lettuce. These seeds were chosen because they have the prospect of high economic value, while also containing excellent nutritional value to help fulfill community food nutrition. After that, the activity continued with education on how to sow seeds, care, how to harvest and education on the health benefits of cultivated fish and vegetables. apt. Roshamur as the speaker also conveyed things that must be considered so that farmed fish remain healthy.
“Fish are given sufficient food. Excess fish food must be taken away because otherwise it will be toxic to the fish. Apart from that, if there are fish that are unhealthy or attacked by fungus/disease, they need to be separated immediately so they don’t infect other fish,” said apt. Roshamur at one of the educational sessions. Together with apt. Roshamur, the FFUI Community Service Team also consisted of Prof. Dr. apt. Berna Elya, M.Si along with other FFUI academics including undergraduate and doctoral students at the Faculty of Pharmacy UI.
After delivering the material, the activity continued with the budikdamber aquaponics practice session. In this practical activity, local residents directly prepared and planted seeds in the available budikdamber buckets. “I am happy with this activity because I get additional knowledge about vegetable cultivation so I hope it will be useful for the local community,” said Maya, one of the participants.
This activity, which was attended by more than 50 participants from the Jati Padang Poncol Village community, closed with a short discussion with residents and the local community. This activity, which is the first step in empowering the people of the Jati Padang Poncol area, will continue to be accompanied by a service team collaborating with the Saungelmu community as an effort to make it successful and optimize the utilization of budikdamber aquaponic cultivation for the local community.
