Mia Rosmiati
Maratua Island has superior underwater tourism potential, making it a leading underwater tourism destination and also has the potential for agricultural development on the main island. Increasing tourist visits and population demand the provision of food ingredients including fresh and quality vegetables. Currently vegetables are still supplied from outside Maratua Island. The development of land-based vegetable cultivation activities in Maratua is hampered by (1) on the main land of the island, there is a shallow soil solum with a high proportion of karst rock cover, (2) sandy soil conditions and a high proportion of rock cover, high porosity and salinity on the coast, (3) brackish groundwater/spring conditions other than in Maratua Teluk Harapan Village, and (4) the presence of monkey pests in plant cultivation activities in areas around the forest. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a cultivation system that does not use soil as a planting medium.
At this target location, the SITH PPM Team has developed a vegetable agribusiness using a hydroponic system for cultivating vegetables which was previously difficult to obtain, now they can carry out vegetable cultivation independently. The potential that can be developed on Maratua Island is integrating the tourism and agricultural sectors into agrotourism which aims to increase community income and expand employment opportunities by utilizing the potential of abundant local resources including the production of quality vegetable crops. The results of training and practice show quite good progress, the target community has succeeded in cultivating vegetables in hydroponic and raised bed installations. They have sold the production results and the proceeds from the sales are used to purchase production facilities for the next production process and the remainder is stored in the group treasury. With hydroponic and raised bed cultivation, the people of Umbrella Village will no longer have difficulty obtaining and enjoying fresh vegetables.
Developing the agricultural sector and integrating it with tourism in Maratua
1. The target group has been able to produce fresh vegetables and is in great demand by local residents 2. Cultivation of hydroponic systems motivates people in other villages to develop hydroponic systems. Currently, Bohe Silian village has adopted hydroponic vegetable cultivation 3. Increased group income from sales of hydroponic vegetables.