Faculty of Animal Science UGM has won first place winner in the National Effective Technology Innovation (ITGN) hosted by Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) Jambi University. It was Muhammad Hidayat and Hanif Yoga Pratama representing Faculty of Animal Sciences UGM in the competition from 27– 29 November in Jambi. Making Use of Cacao Peel for Cacao Plantation in Taluditi, Pohuwato regency, Province of Gorontalo. This is the result of technology innovation for Taluditi people in Gorontalo during the Student Community Service programme(KKN PPM UGM 2015 Unit Gorontalo 02).
According to Muhammad Hidayat, Taluditi as a centre for cacao production in Gorontalo still has low cacao productivity between 266kg/ha/year compared to national standard 800kg/ha/year due to the high level of pests. One of the parts attacked by the pests is the peel.
“The pest found there during Student Community Service is Heloopeltis antonii, cacao pests, while the disease mostly found is caused by Phytopthora palmivora fungi that make the fruit go black and rotten,” Hidayat said on Saturday (4/12).
The student team tried to resolve the case by eradicating pests with integrated system, using cacao peel as cattle feed. According to Hidayat, such use is expected to be able to cut the cycle of of the pests and diseases so the cacao productivity may increase.
“A technology is needed here, which is silage, or preserving feed through fermentation using anaerobic method with the help of lactic acid bacteria. Silage is seen as an effective technology for the people of Taluditi, because the process is simple, you only need to store the cacao peel in the fermentor tanks," he said.
He said this simple technology was well accepted by the community before in the future it is developed further for the industry. Such method proved to be able to preserve the peel until six months. This also can fulfil the need for nutrients of cows.