Cultivating Ornamental Plants, MoSA Tries to Preserve the Environment and Improve the Living Standards of Beneficiaries

Bandung (June 18, 2023) - Indonesia as a country with biodiversity needs conservation efforts. Biodiversity, such as ornamental plants, is also increasingly showing good prospects for becoming a business to be worth considered.

Not only they attract the interest of domestic collectors, ornamental plants from Indonesia are also appealing to foreign collectors. Seeing this opportunity, Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini initiated an ornamental plant business to become a social empowerment effort for beneficiaries at the Ministry of Social Affairs as well as preserving endemic Indonesian plants.

At several Integrated Centers (Centres belonging to the Ministry of Social Affairs), the beneficiaries such as the elderly, people with disabilities and other socio-economic vulnerable groups are being given various training in ornamental plant cultivation, such as the Wyata Guna Bandung Center.

"Under the direction of the Minister of Social Affairs, Mrs. Tri Rismaharini, integrated centers utilize the land for cultivating ornamental plants. Apart from that, they also cultivate several other agricultural products," said Iri Sapria, Head of the Wyata Guna Bandung Center.

Iri continued, this mass training was first carried out at the Wyata Guna Center. A total of 31 participants took part in this training, consists of Beneficiaries (PM), Wyata Guna Center employees and residents around the center. Participants are trained from planting to selling ornamental plants.

In this training, Sentra Wyata Guna involved resource persons from Floriculture Indonesia International Convex (FLOII Convex) and Mitra Natura Raya Bogor.

Iri added that at the Wyata Guna Center there are already beneficiaries who are involved in cultivating ornamental plants. "Here, they empowered further to try and be independent in selling ornamental plants. It is hoped that other beneficiaries can also participate in developing this business," he said.

Apart from training support, the Ministry of Social Affairs also prepare a counter as a marketing place for PMs' ornamental plant cultivation results. It doesn't stop there, this year the Ministry of Social Affairs will register PMs who have cultivated ornamental plants to take part in the FLOII Convex exhibition, the largest ornamental plant exhibition in Indonesia which is planned to be held at ICE BSD, Tangerang.

Handry Chuhairy, an ornamental plant training and cultivation instructor, admitted that he greeted the enthusiasm of the training participants. Participants consist of beneficiaries (people with visual, physical and mental disabilities), employees of the Bandung Wyata Guna Center and the community around this center diligently participated in every stage of the training.

"I believe they can develop this ornamental plant business. This will be their way of preserving endemic plants in Indonesia and improving their standard of living in the future," he said.

The Steering Committee at FLOII Convex admitted that it would continue to monitor the progress of the participants for the next 3 months.

Afrizal Ilham, Education & Conservation Class Coordinator from Mitra Natura Raya Bogor felt the same thing, who was the resource person for Orchid cultivation on the second day of training, Sunday (18/6).

"I saw and felt the enthusiasm of the PMs. This is the first time I have trained some friends who have limitations, but they were enthusiastic, they dared to ask questions and could even answer our questions. This means they paid attention and understood," he said.

He hopes that from this training the PMs will like orchid cultivation, so that they will continue to pursue and learn more about orchid cultivation.

One of the training participants, Tata (42), admitted that she gained a lot of additional knowledge in this training.

"I have never received any training so far. From this training I learned how to mix planting media, eradicate pests and how to propagate plants which require special skills," said Tata, who has been autodidactic in the world of ornamental plants for almost 30 years.

Until now, Tata has been able to market its ornamental plants online with a reach as far as East Nusa Tenggara. She hopes to get a golden opportunity to market her cultivated products to an international level, one of which is through exhibitions held in several regions.