Water is the most important substance for the life of mankind. Its occurrence is essential both for this earth and our body consumption remembering 60 percent of our body consists of water. Therefore, clean water conservation is necessary to prevent scarcity. Along with commemorating World Water Day every 22 March, a clean irrigation movement group (GIB) Merti Tirta Amartani, Department Agricultural and Biosystem Engineering, UGM Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Bantul Regency, Association of Operations and Maintenance Officers (OP) for Irrigation Indonesia collaborated to organize a GIB anniversary with the theme raised "valuing water."
"We should respect its benefit and its availability and appreciate their innovations. Also, we should conserve and prevent it from its scarcity. Mankind and this universe still highly need its availability," said Prof. Dr.Ir. Eni Harmayani, M.Sc., as the Dean of UGM Faculty of Agricultural Technology.
She also added that people should conserve water through respecting the water service, respecting infrastructure, respecting human resources involved in water management. People should keep improving their awareness because some areas in Indonesia have begun to experience water scarcity.
On the other hand, Zainnudin from the Tani Dwi Manunggal group delivered mina padi practice importance. Mina padi had several benefits in optimizing water management, which is to resolve the conflict between fish farmers and husbandmen. Besides, mina padi is also beneficial to fertilize the soil by using compost once in a time. It can also reduce labor costs to weed grass, double yields of rice and fish, and rice fields can be used as recreation places.
"Mina padi practice is not that complicated. We should only be patient in learning it from time to time," added Zainudin.
Nevertheless, Zainudin admitted there were challenges in its working implementation because the workers are dominated by the elderly age. He admitted that in this era, the young generation has low interest in agriculture. Therefore, he expected that hopefully, one day, the UGM Faculty of Agricultural Technology would like to encourage the young generation to contribute to improving agriculture.
Author: Khansa