Jakarta - President Director of PT Sido Muncul Pupuk Nusantara (SMPN) David Hidayat, explained that the company has succeeded in utilising herbal waste from the herbal medicine production of PT Industri Jamu dan Farmasi Sido Muncul Tbk (SIDO) into agricultural fertiliser and livestock nutrition supplements.

“We have been working for almost 20 years to process waste into agricultural fertiliser and livestock nutrition," David, who also serves as President Director of SIDO, told IDNFinancials last week.

As a result of experiments with cattle farmers, said David, the livestock supplement labelled Herbafarm has significantly reduced the smell of cow faeces. “The ammonia smell is drastically reduced, so flies don't come.”

The full video of David's explanation of the utilisation of waste into fertiliser products and livestock supplements can be seen here: https://www.idnfinancials.com/id/videos/watch/1347/

On a separate occasion, PT Integra Panca Synergi, as the main distributor of Herbafarm, explained that SMPN herbal products are very beneficial for livestock and agriculture. “It's like a livestock ‘herbal medicine/jamu’ that functions to improve the digestive process of livestock,” said Norman Adityatama, Integra's President Director. 

Good digestion, he continued, has a positive impact on the cattle. In the beef cattle trial, after using Herbafarm regularly for 3 months, the cattle could gain an average of almost 3 kilograms per day. Whereas, Norman continued, normally the average increase is only 0.8 kilograms - 1.3 kilograms per day.

Various demonstration plots for the supplement trial also gave positive results for other animals. In laying hen, broiler and quail farms, there was a decrease in mortality rates, increased production yields and extended the egg production period.

On the other hand, said Norman, the herbal medicine production waste can be made into liquid and granular organic fertiliser products that function as ‘herbal medicine’ to improve soil fertility. 

Trials using Herbafarm fertiliser for rice crops in Tabanan, Bali, showed yields reached 9.82 tonnes per hectare, while those not using it produced 9.1 tonnes per hectare. “This means it is 720 kilograms better than those that did not use Herbafarm.” (DK/MT/LM)