PALANGKARAYA - A good pesticide is essential. They protect crops from pests, diseases, and weeds while also increasing productivity, allowing farmers to produce more quality food. Careful use of any pesticide is necessary because even organic and natural insecticides contain hazardous ingredients. To find the most efficient and user-friendly organic insecticides, the Youth Act team conducted an experiment to extract peptides from natural substances in our greenhouse. Our goal is to provide organic pesticide training to female farmers in the Talekoi area, and this experiment is the first step toward that end.
The experiment was led by Joneri Permadi P, a university student at Palangka Raya University majoring in Agrotechnology. In the first trial, we made peptides from papaya leaves and onions. Grinding the substances in a blender, letting them stand for a day, filtering, and diluting the extract with water in a variety of compositions are the only processes required to make peptides from these two different materials.
"We want to find the best composition of organic pesticide from ingredients that are easy to find in Talekoi", expressed Joneri after he applied papaya leaves and onion pesticides to our chilies in Greenhouse.
The next day, we evaluated the condition of the chilies that were exposed to the peptide solution. As a result, the quantity of mealybugs attacking our chilies on the chili tree has decreased by 75%. Both of these peptides are quite effective at warding off pests on chili plants. We will continue to conduct research to determine the viability of household waste materials as pesticides to support women farming group in Talekoi village.
Please visit our social media to watch the process of making organic peptides here.