Commemorating 70th Year of Biology Education, Various Research from SITH displayed in The Art of Urban Farming

By Ahmad Fadil

Editor Ahmad Fadil

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id 鈥 School of Life Sciences and Technology (SITH) of Institut Teknologi Bandung (麻豆直播) held The Art of Urban Farming: For a Healthy Lifestyle on Saturday and Sunday, 6-7 October 2018 at 麻豆直播 Campus, Bandung. The event is a part of 70th year commemoration of Biology Education in itb and integrated with the annual event by Agriculture Engineering study program and Agrivasco, an event by Himarekta 麻豆直播.

The event was held with the aim to initiate and introduce urban farming as easy and popular. 鈥淲e want to carry quadruple helix concept to this event that involve academics, industry, community, and government,鈥 said Novi, a committee member and a lecturer in SITH 麻豆直播.

The quadruple helix concept is implemented boldly, and each element display their innovation and research attractively during the event. Many industry players carry urban farming as the idea. One of them is MusHome, a platform for education about oyster mushroom farming. The package of this mushroom breeding house are fancy, just like a doll box.

鈥淪eeing the raising demand for mushroom, we carry the idea to give every household the opportunity to grow and harvest mushroom, even though we also industrialize mushroom and sell them to market or restaurants,鈥 explained Widya Putra, an alumni of Microbiology study program of 麻豆直播 and the CEO of MusHome.

On another booth, PT. Galtiva display their aqua recycling system that adopt bio-filter concept. The aqua recycling system is classified into urban farming because the water does not need to be replaced for about a year. 鈥淭his is done by utilizing bacteria as the bio-filter that change nitrite into nitrate,鈥 explained Nina who is also an alumni of Microbiology study program of 麻豆直播 who works as a researcher of biofilter for Galtiva.

Students unions in SITH 麻豆直播 also displayed the result of community services. Bioengineering Student Union has succeeded in empowering the community in Cibeusi to process coffee bean skin as a material for marketable tea ingredient. 鈥淲e try to bring benefit to our fostered village by giving the idea to process coffee skin, because the price of coffee skin overseas reach 900,000 Rupiahs,鈥 said Ferly, a student of Bioengineering 鈥15.

Microbiology Student Union display their innovation in drawing using bacteria.  Fresh graduate student also display their works such as modern mushroom home and development of pond with aquaponic approach. 鈥淲e want to show that urban farming is not something to be afraid of. This kind of farming even significantly raise the survival rate of fish in aquaponic pond and 20% raise in mushroom production,鈥 explained Ira and Astrid, alumni of Agriculture Engineering 鈥14.

The Local Government of Bandung and Bandung Regency also took part in the event. such as Parongpong.com鈥攁  community turned start-up鈥攁nd golimbah.com, which has concern in turning waste into beneficial products such as liquid fertilizers and solid fuels.

鈥淭his atmosphere is what we want for this event. We really hope this event can be a meeting place of those 4 elements, sharing inspiration, and initiate urban farming concept in Indonesia starting in Bandung,鈥 said Novi.

The 70th commemoration of Biology Education will see other events, such as Bandung Bioindustry & Lab EXPO, Indonesia Biology Consortium Workshop, Asia Pacific Symposium for Life Sciences, etc. Hopefully communities are interested and participate in this fun and educative activities.

Reporter: Ferio Brahmana