An UGM team came second place in the National Writing Contest held on 1 May 2010 at Makassar State University. UGM team consisting of Genesiska (Biology), Sigit Dwi Maryanto (Biology), and Muhammad Dzarnuji Aziz (Engineering) submitted a paper entitled Implementation of Strategy of Plant Breeding to Improve Agribusiness Ahead of ACFTA.
Genesiska, chair of team, said that they offered a solution to Indonesian agriculture to deal with the free trade era by plant breeding strategy. That needs to be done bearing in mind that Indonesian agriculture is not yet independent in meeting agricultural demands. “Often there is a gap between consumption and production, especially horticulture products as main food. “The right, systematic and sustainable plant breeding, supported by the community, will help improve seed agribusiness,” she explained on Friday (4/6).
In her opinion, the improvement is much required because production values and plant harvests rely heavily on seed price and availability. Indonesia will remain a consumptive country dependable on imported seeds if not taking strategic steps immediately. "A strategy to solve this problem is needed to increase agriculture productivity. One of the steps is to provide quality seed as pre-production sub-system,” he added.
Sigit Dwi Maryanto added that plant breeding can be implemented to increase agribusiness. A cycle, however, needs to be made correctly and sustainably. "Afterwards, the product of plant breeding can be produced through mutual relations between Indonesian seed producers and seed plasm, particularly farmers. This way, the price and benefit to be gained can be adjusted to the market condition. It is hoped that the price of seed is no more expensive than that of imported one to encourage farmers to use local seeds,” he explained.
Sigit continued that for the short term, the seeds to be marketed should be those that have passed certification. After that, the productivity value is increased by giving training to people in seed production centres. Sigit emphasised that to maintain the sustainability of agribusiness, five steps of plant breeding should be done synergically by related institutions. "With this step, Indonesia will slowly become an independent country to meet its own agricultural demands,” he concluded.
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