Agricultural Researcher Who Works Ceaselessly

KOMPAS/NINUK MARDIANA PAMBUDY

Ali Zum Mashar.

One man who is confident that Indonesia can meet the greater part or even all of the domestic demand for soybeans is Ali Zum Mashar, an agricultural entrepreneur and researcher. His voice is clearly heard above the rising price of imported soybeans, the raw material for the tempeh and tofu industries.

On Sunday (6/3/2022) at his 60-hectare Center for “Google” Microbe Biotechnological Research, Development and Application in Cikutu hamlet of Rancasanggal village in Cinangka district, Serang regency, Banten, Ali showed his soybean plants, which had grown almost 4 meters tall.

“We want to show that local soybeans can grow luxuriantly and have high productivity. There should be no reason that Indonesian soybeans can’t offer high yields,” said Ali.

By using the biological fertilizer Mikroba “Google” (Migo) he developed, Ali said soybean production could reach up to 3.5 tons per hectare, or more tahn triple the average production of around 1 ton. Their yield is even higher than the 2.7-ton average production of one of the world’s largest soybean producers, the United States.

Also read:

Helping Farmers to be Prosperous

Ali, deputy general chairman of the Indonesian Organic Agriculture and Farmers Society, openly criticized intellectuals and agricultural figures who had cast doubt over Indonesia’s capacity to produce soybeans. He regretted those who continued to maintain the view that Indonesia could not produce enough soybeans because it was a subtropical plant. He has proven at his Cikutu research plantation that his soybeans can grow even bigger than imported varieties.

Since he discovered Migo, the formal name of which is Bio P2000 Z, Ali has continued to innovate and research. “Bio” is short for bio-perforation, which he describes as “opening space for life”, “P” stands for pupuk (fertilizer), 2000 is the year he registered his patent with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Switzerland, while “Z” comes from Zum.

As an agricultural entrepreneur, Ali has five national patents and three international patents with the WIPO. He also revealed that he and his team had developed 21 soybean and 8 rice varieties. At the Cikutu paddy field, swaths of Trisakti rice, which has double the average capacity of national production, were ready for harvesting. Trisakti rice is on the Plant Varieties Protection (PVT) list and is delivered to the Agriculture Ministry for distribution to farmers.

Studying microbes

During a conversation in Cikutu, Ali, who is a biotechnological researcher at the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry, said he had been interested in agriculture and microorganisms since childhood. His hometown was surrounded by paddy fields and its farmers did not have proper welfare, which only served to increase his interest.

After earning his bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Gen. Soedirman University in Purwokerto and joining the Department of Transmigration and Settlement of Forest Communities, Ali was allotted fertile land where he pursued his interests.

He hunted for microbes from the Kalimantan peatland to as far as land in West Sumatra that had high aluminum content.

In 1997, when he was tasked with providing guidance to 600 farming families in planting rice on 65 hectares of peatland as part of the 1 million ha Peatland Development (PLG) program in Central Kalimantan, he noticed that the farmers’ yield was lower than the potential. While finishing his doctoral studies in natural resources and environmental management at the Bogor Agricultural University (now IPB University), Ali started looking into the plant species that were flourishing on the land of the PLG program. He collected the soil around the plants’ roots and took it to the laboratory to analyze the types of microbes in the soil. He hunted for microbes from the Kalimantan peatland to as far as land in West Sumatra that had high aluminum content.

Migo contains 18 microbes that Ali said would not harm the environment.

“They work like the Google search engine. The microbes search for minerals hidden in soil, processing them biologically so that the plants can utilized them. They are like bio-activators,” said Ali.

KOMPAS/NINUK MARDIANA PAMBUDY

Ali Zum Mashar.

As a result, the biological fertilizer he developed helps promote cellular activity in the plants, including photosynthesis, and also provides the trace minerals they need. The plants’ productivity increases and the use of artificial fertilizers can be reduced, thus helping to protect the environment.

The biological fertilizer has been tested in many locations, including a former gold mine on peatland in Kerengpangi, Central Kalimantan, an area of the Lapindo mudflow disaster site in East Java, and even in the sandy soils of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“Each [type of] land contains minerals that can be changed into trace elements for plants by the right microbes,” added Ali.

Researching and sharing

“People have long been consuming tempeh [as] a source of protein. Ths soybeans were domestically produced,” said Ali.

“I have proven that local soybeans can be bigger with a larger number of seedpods, so their productivity is higher,” he stated.

Also read:

Ensuring Farmers’ Welfare

Ali has never complained about the challenges he overcame in national agriculture. In 2008, he produced 21 pure cultivars of local soybeans with a production potential of 3.5 tons per ha. In 2014, he developed the first-generation of quick-ripening nonhybrid Trisakti Migo rice with a production potential of 11 tons per ha. Two years later, he developed six cultivars of second-generation high-yieldTrisakti Migo rice with a short maturing period of 60 to 75 days.

Ali obtained sterile male parent stock from Yuan, which he later crossbred with local rice.

To develop the second-generation Trisakti rice, Ali learned directly from the “father of hybrid rice”, Chinese scientist Yuan Longping, who visited Indonesia to test hybrid rice. Ali obtained sterile male parent stock from Yuan, which he later crossbred with local rice.

Ali has been endlessly researching and sharing the science of farming with several farming communities. He has invited the people of Toba and North Tapanuli regencies to employ the method of multiple cropping by planting corn, pineapple and coffee, and farmers in the arid lands of East Sumba to grow Trisakti and Migo rice, as well as helped many other communities. As a researcher at the transmigration ministry, Ali has also strived to introduce agriculture to the people of the Usku and Molof villages in Senggi district, Keerom regency, Papua, who still live as hunters and gatherers.

“The Usku people are happy because their farm yields meet their food needs. They say they want to remain [as a part of] Indonesia because they enjoy much better welfare. This is a peaceful approach,” said Ali.

Like his “Google” microbe, he continues to research with joy, finding new things that will benefit society. In 2022, he developed 3 m-tall organic soybeans and Trisakti Golden organic brown rice with a productivity rate of 11 tons per ha. Life is, according to Ali, full of miracles.

Ali Zum Mashar

Born: Demak, 19 May 1972

Wife: Nur Kamaliyah

Children: Three

Education: Bachelor from Gen. Soedirman University, Purwokerto; master and doctoral from Bogor Agricultural University (now IPB University)

Awards:

- Kalyana Kretya Utama for excellence in applied research from President Megawati Sukarnoputri (2004)

- Extraordinary Intellectual Property Award (2009) in patented technology for the food subsector for “The Process of Bio-perforation Fertilizer Production and Derivative Processes”

- Indonesian Organic Agriculture and Farmers Society Award; ICMI Award (2021)

(This article was translated by Aris Prawira).