Disclaimer
This article may contain copyrighted material, the use of which may not have been pre-authorized by the copyright owner. This material is made available for the purpose of giving information and knowledge. The material contained on the Astra Agro website distributed without profit. If you are interested in using copyrighted material from this material for any reason that goes beyond ‘fair use’, you must first obtain permission from the original source
PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk is committed to implementing the principle of sustainability in doing business.
One of them is by continuing to encourage using fertilizers from organic materials called Astemic. This biofertilizer can reduce chemical fertilizers by up to 25%.
Fenny Sofyan, Vice President of Investor Relations and Public said that Astemic fertilizer comes from organic materials abundant in Indonesia.
Astemic’s raw materials are obtained from Astra Agro’s plantation lands and endophytes are from within oil palm plants.
According to Fenny, Astemic fertilizer, which is made to meet internal needs, will be applied to 53 thousand hectares of oil palm mineral land managed by Astra Agro.
“The efficiency can reach 660,000s/ha/year for an estimate in 2024,” said Fenny Sofian in Jakarta, Thursday, June 20, 2024.
The process of inventing Astemic was not short. The trial and field test stages were carried out for 7 years, starting in 2016 until 2023.
Biofertilizers are generally used in horticultural commodities. Then adapted for annual crops such as oil palm.
The process begins with microbial exploration on Astra Agro’s plantation land, and then microbial selection is carried out to obtain potential microbes that are easy to develop.
Formulation is carried out until the Astemic microbial consortium is formed. Quality and performance tests of Astemic fertilizer were carried out both at the seedling stage, TBM (immature plants), TM (producing plants) to old plants (>20 years).
As a result, a formula and application procedure for Astemic was obtained that is convenient and appropriate for practical application in the field.
After product testing, Astemic obtained trademark intellectual property rights (HAKI) which were then registered with the Ministry of Agriculture to obtain a distribution permit.
In addition to helping optimize nutrient absorption into oil palm plants, Astemic fertilizer is also effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
From an agronomic perspective, Astemic helps inhibit Ganoderma disease infection, which is a frightening scourge in oil palm plantations.
Source: Sawitku.id
