Heaptalk, Jakarta — The Department of Agriculture and Food Security of Tangerang Regency organized a chili planting event in 107 elementary schools and 174 villages/urban communities in 29 districts. This event also marked a new milestone by breaking the MURI (Indonesian World Record Museum) record.
The chili planting event involved various community elements, including the Gerakan Ibu Kita Women Farmers Group (KWT Gerabuka) in Sodong Village. The Head of Sodong Village, Doni Bambang, expressed his pride in this achievement.
The Head of the Tangerang Regency Department of Agriculture and Food Security (DPKP), Asep Jatmika Sutrisno, stated, “We carried out the chili planting simultaneously with hundreds of villages, urban communities, and elementary schools in Tangerang Regency.”
Asep explained that the horticulture planting program, precisely the chili commodity, was also an effort to extend the planting season and curb inflation in the region. Based on his statement, this activity aims to stabilize food prices, particularly for bird’s eye chili, reduce inflation, and extend the planting season for farmers’ chili crops.
Additionally, the food planting movement is an application of the Pancasila reinforcement project, an interdisciplinary educational initiative designed to create solutions for environmental issues within the academic sphere.
“We hope this activity is not solely about achieving the MURI record but also encouraging us to perform the movement to preserve the planting culture and intensify or utilize home gardens to strengthen our food security,” he added.
After breaking the record for the most food plants, Asep announced that the program would continue from September to October, planting 195,000 chili plants in the region.
Meanwhile, MURI Deputy Director Oscar Semesta Susilo in Tangerang emphasized that the MURI award was given for the horticultural planting event involving hundreds of thousands of students and community members across Tangerang Regency.
“We give an award as MURI record. As far as we know, no other government in the world has conducted a chili-planting movement of this scale. This has never happened before anywhere else,” he concluded.
