Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI) plans to promote the echelon status of the Research Institute of Natural Materials Technology (BPTBA) LIPI in Yogyakarta to become the Echelon II Research Center. By this decision, it is expected that it will increase the scope of research so as to make a quality improvement in various aspects, including the scope of cooperation. On Monday (5/7) Commission C of the Regional House of Representative (DPRD) and the Regional Planning and Development Agency (Bappeda) of Gunung Kidul and Gunung Kidul visits the center office of LIPI in Jakarta to explore cooperation with BPTBA in order to increase the potential of Gunung Kidul Regency.
Welcoming the plan, Mego Pinandito, the Deputy of LIPI Scientific Services, believes that Gunung Kidul Regency has a lot of potential that can be explored and improved. “LIPI is not only about BPTBA, but also many other fields. With the great potential of Gunung Kidul Regency, a lot of things can be explored with other research centers of LIPI,” said Mego.
The chairperson of Commission C of DPRD of Gunung Kidul Regency, Purwanto, mentioned that Gunung Kidul had many potentials in natural resources but limited in human resources. Purwanto hopes that BPTBA LIPI can help to utilize cassava resources to be an animal feed so as to produce good livestock production. Moreover, he hopes that LIPI can explore the potential of straw that is usually thrown away at the harvest time without knowing its potential.
Suharjo, vice chairman of Commission C of DPRD of Gunung Kidul, raised the issue about white stone cutting waste and calcareous water. He hopes that the welfare of farmers can also be improved with better knowledge about soil maintenance. “Our human resources are very resilient in execution, but we need help from LIPI researchers in terms of further knowledge,” Suharjo said. “Knowledge about land maintenance may be given so that farmers’ welfare can be raised. In addition, Gunung Kidul has a problem of calcareous water sources from white stone cutting waste. If this problem can be dealt with then the water source of Gunung Kidul can be used economically.”
However, Purwanto states his hope that the visit could explore the potential for cooperation between Gunung Kidul Regency and LIPI. “I hope this collaboration will be an initial synergy between LIPI and the Government of Gunung Kidul Regency. So, the potential of the natural resources can be utilized optimally to increase the economic value, in order to improve the welfare of its people.” (trans:iz)
