Pemberdayaan tanaman lokal untuk kualitas hidup sehat dan bernilai ekonomi di Kabupaten Sidrap

Abstract

Damai Village is a Watang Sidenreng District which
is a village with a tropical climate, as well as other villages in
the Indonesian territory. There are two seasons in Indonesia,
namely dry season and rainy season. Climate also has a direct
effect on cropping patterns in villages with 2,047 Mm of
rainfall, the number of rainy months is 6 months, above the
daily average temperature of 30° (degrees C), with a height of
sea level of 200 mdl. These problems need to be provided with
solutions such that the community can meet food needs at all
times. In connection with meeting these food needs, the
availability of land must be the main point of solving
problems. As explained earlier that land scarcity is one of the
main obstacles to the development of agricultural land. To
improve the quality of life of the people in the Damai Village
area - Watang Sidenreng District, it is deemed necessary to use
local plants such as Moringa trees, considering the availability
of home or leftover land around fertile and not functioning
houses. The importance of using local potential plants to
cultivate plants that have efficacy can also have economic
value in order to meet family incomes. Moringa trees are local
plants that have great potential. One of them can be utilized as
a drug or medicinal material that can be distributed to the
community, especially drugs derived from plants (Tukiman,
2004). Moringa oleifera can not only grow and develop in
India and Indonesia but also in other tropical regions of the
world. Moringa can breed well in areas that have a land height
of 300-500 meters above sea level. Because Moringa plants
are legumes, it is good to be intercropped with other plants
because they can add nitrogen and soil (Anonimous, 2007).
One of the beneficial properties for cultivating Moringa trees
is known for a long time, namely the lack of fertilizer use and
rarely attacked by pests (by insects) or disease (by microbes).
So the cost of fertilizing and controlling pests and diseases is
relatively very cheap. In fact, from the experience of Moringa
farmers who have long been involved, it is known that good
fertilization comes from organic fertilizers, especially from
nuts (eg. green beans, soybeans or long beans) which are
planted around Moringa trees (Winarno, 2003). Moringa plants
can grow quickly and easily to process Moringa leaves, fresh
or processed into dry powder, can be used as food daily in
many ways: in ready to use food, juice, bread, pasta, fried,
seasoning, instant soup. This food can be used in households,
cafeteria schools, pharmacies, maternity wards, nutrition
rehabilitation centers, as well as restaurants and supermarkets.
Moringa plants are an extraordinary source for the community,
especially for developing countries. Processed or fresh, the
Moringa leaf is not only new, a source of promising income
and employment, but also vegetables, amazingly rich in
nutrients for families and markets. One of the efforts to

empower the Damai Village community in improving a health
related quality of life which is easy to do and have an
economic value toincrease family incomes, namely
theMoringa leaf processing.It is the first and decisive step of
product quality using Moringa leaf base ingredients. This
processing will produce dried moringa leaves as moringa tea
ingredients, both brewed tea and teabag tea, and moringa leaf
flour or extract used for capsule filling, moringa tablets,
nutrient enhancing mixtures in processed food ingredients such
as Moringa crackers, Moringa cookies, Moringa sweets, fruit
juice mixture, or sown directly into food, as a nutritional
enhancer of food so that it can improve thehealth related
quality of life and can have economic value which is able to
increase family incomes so that a newentrepreneurship can be
created.