VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia is an agrarian country with is rich of natural resources. Various tropical plants grow easily and fertily in Indonesia; one of which is rice plant. Rice is the staple food of most Indonesians. Their dependency on rice is very high. Therefore, the government keeps encouraging to increase rice production in the country. There are many factors that support the increase of rice harvest. In addition to land availability, soil fertility, water and human resources, agricultural technology also contributes to increase the rice production. Some Indonesian farmers have already used simple technology in rice farming. They use tractors, paddy fields markers and many more.

Agricultural technology is created to facilitate the work of farmers and to increase agricultural production. As part of Indonesian society, students have an important role to contribute to agriculture, especially rice farming. Weeds or wild plants are problems that are almost always faced by all farmers. Weeds can grow in rice fields planted with crops and rice. The presence of wild plants or weeds on the sidelines of rice plants will certainly disrupt rice production. The wild grass can disrupt the growth of rice plants and reduce production.

Therefore, two Bogor Agricultural College students invent a simple machine that serves to destroy weed and fertilize rice in the fields. This machine is named 'Si Tepuk'. This mechine is the invention of Aceng Muhammad Badrudin Muttaqin and Dani Kurnia. Aceng said that Si Tepuk uses electricity from battery that can already be produced in Indonesia. This machine combines weeding and fertilizing activities. The working principle is a cutting knife which serves to cut the weeds to the roots. The engine is equipped with the first wheel that serves to immerse the weeds that have been cut off. The fertilizer discharging funnel serves to sprinkle the fertilizer near the plant roots and the rear wheel serves to immerse the fertiler. According to Aceng, the concept of making cultivators and rice fertilizers has been started since October 2017 to January 2018. The process of making the cultivator takes time for approximately two weeks. Making this machine is done in cooperation with welding workshop.

They made these farming tools based on their experience with farmers when they did field practice. They saw that there were farmers who cultivated rice without weeding first because the grass was still small so it was hard to do the weeding. In fact, the activity of cultivating and nurturing aims to optimize the growth of plants with the absorption of nutrients in the right target. Si Tepuk has been included in the Agriventor Technology Agricultural Youth Inventor Competition 2017 organized by the Indonesian Youth Farmers' Movement (Gempita). Aceng said the competition was followed by 36 teams of young inventors all over Indonesia. On 20 February 2018, the team presented their findings to the jury.

Meanwhile, Dani Kurnia said that the interest to following the competition had encouraged them to create simple tools useful for the agricultural sector. According to Dani, the machine of Si Tepuk is a real action of STPP Bogor students to advance agriculture in Indonesia. Dani added that they received input from the competition jury team. However, the tool still requires more trials so that it can be used by farmers.