Bandung City First Harvest of Shallots

This harvest was symbolically carried out by the Mayor of Bandung, Yana Mulyana together with the Deputy Director of the BI West Java Representative Office, Yusuf Wicaksono at Buruan SAE Taruna RW 08, Kujang Sari Village, Bandung Kidul District, Friday 20 January 2023.

At the event, the Bandung City Government (Pemkot) collaborated with Bank Indonesia West Java Representatives to also provide red onion seeds as well as cayenne pepper.

The BI West Java representative provided 1,500 Organic Tower Gardens (OTG) to 30 sub-districts throughout the city of Bandung, with each region receiving 50 OTG units.

Mayor of Bandung, Yana Mulyana said, 96.47 percent of food needs in the city of Bandung are supplied from outside the city of Bandung.

"This is food dependence. So the presence of these OTGs is able to meet the needs in their respective regions," said Yana.

He added, apart from meeting the needs, the harvest was also able to suppress inflation in the city of Bandung, because one of the basic necessities whose price often fluctuated.

"With this program, shallots and chilies can also be fulfilled on our own, can suppress inflation, prices are under control as well as needs met," he said.

He thanked the West Java representative BI for his contribution in providing support to the community in these activities.

"Thank you to the BI West Java Representative for the support in providing these seeds. Also later when the harvest plans to be marketed it can be assisted by the Bandung City Chamber of Commerce and Industry," he explained.

In the same place, the Head of the Bandung City Agriculture and Food Security Service, Gin Gin Ginanjar explained, the current harvest in 16 regions is around 1.5 tons.

"In general, it is 1:7. If 1 kg of onion seeds produces 7 kg. In general, the 16 locations produce 1.5 tons of shallots. In fact, one group can produce 2.4 kg," he said.

He explained, OTG is a simple innovation of cultivation techniques to target limited land.

"This OTG is a simple innovation, a cultivation technique for limited land targets using a vertical system. For 1 unit there are 40-50 planting holes," he explained.

The seeds, said Gin Gin, have been harvested for 2.5-3 months in 335 Buruan Sae groups.

"Today the onion harvest takes 2.5-3 months, the first harvest has been in 16 out of 30 locations," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director of the BI West Java Representative Office, Yusuf Wicaksono said, this activity was a joint effort by the government to reduce inflation.

"Joint efforts by the government and the community regarding controlling inflation with this planting movement. Operations of cheap markets, cheap bazaars as well as urban farming are one of the efforts," he said.(yan)**

Head of the Bandung City Communication and Informatics Agency

Yayan A. Brilyana