BANDUNG, lppm.itb.ac.id-ITB researchers innovate the use of coffee waste into fertilizer. By presenting the concept of agrosilvopasture, this can make the results obtained will be environmentally friendly as well as profitable for farmers.

The coffee industry in Indonesia is increasingly trending. It cannot be denied, that the aroma of coffee from Indonesia has been smelled to the international world. This makes this food commodity very promising from an economic point of view.

However, behind the promising benefits, of course this cannot be separated from the problem of coffee waste. One of these problems was found in a coffee plantation located in Tenjolaya Village, Pasirjambu District, Bandung Regency. Coffee cherries that have been polished, the skin is left to accumulate and then thrown away. As a result, it causes an unpleasant odor.

Two researchers from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) Pathmi Noerhatini and Yeyet Setiawati were moved to find a solution.

"Imagine at the level of small farmers who are still simple, there is a lot of waste. So there needs to be alternative efforts with zero-waste bioconversion," said Pathmi quoted from detik.com".

According to his explanation, through the agrosilvopastura method, farmers can get liquid or solid fertilizer from coffee husk waste that has been processed. After this, the coffee husk waste will be mixed and fermented with vegetable waste for two weeks. After being fermented, the larvae of the black army fly (BSF) will devour the fermented products by carrying out a bioconversion process to separate organic waste.

The results of feeding BSF larvae will become organic fertilizer that can be mixed with soil or other media for vegetable seedling.

In addition, the concept of agrosilvopastura is not just about organic fertilizers. BSF larvae that become pupae or cocoons can also be used as additional feed for livestock chickens. As a result, farm chickens grow bigger and more fertile.

"In some areas, we also develop a new type of free-range chicken, the type is KUB chicken (Chicken Kampung Unggul Balitbangtan). Some of the pupae are eaten by chickens, and some are left to become adult flies," said Pathmi.

The results of this concept have been implemented at LMDH Tenjoljaya with a trial period of 60 days. It is hoped that this concept can be applied to other LMDHs in Indonesia.

"We want there to be several advantages for farmers, waste is eliminated and can provide benefits after we carry out bioconversion with BSF. It can be solid fertilizer and liquid fertilizer, organic fertilizer that can be reused by coffee farmers," he said.

"Coffee takes a long time, while farmers need daily ones, so as an alternative, we process the coffee waste that was thrown away for nothing," he added, quoted from detik.com

Editor: Ali Hasan Asyari