Tanah Subur, Indonesia

 

Commercial Rice Biological Trial

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Working with the staff at Tanah Subur in Central Java has been a testament to how well a biological program can be implemented into an existing commercial operation. Additonally, with very little financial investment and have industry shattering results. Growing rice conventionally in the tropics is difficult. Pest and disease pressures are high, the climate is intense and crop losses are the normal. The team at Tanah Subur are fully committed to leaving the land better than they found it and reducing runoff and erosion. 

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The crew at Tanah Subur were trained how to use the microscope, make a biologically complete innoculum, test the innoculum themselves, and successfully regenerate the soils on their rice farms from 9,000 miles away. Thorough training from BioTilth and an extreme attention to detail by the farmers and management has led to an ongoing relationship with new farms coming online in 2024. 

 

Notable successes from the project:

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Decreased NPK use by 50% - anything less than 8kg NPK per 500m2 is considered a crop failure before anything is actually grown. Respectable yields were obtained with zero NPK input as well in another trial. 

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Increased residue decomposition- we were able to shave 2 weeks off of production by entirely reducing the need to plow after a finished crop before replanting. This is a huge feat as they can have 4 harvests a year in Indonesia. 

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Increased Pest and Disease Resistance - Farming rice in Java is a crowded endeavor. Java is the 3rd most populated place on Earth. The clients small 1-2 Hectare plots are directly next to the neighbors plots with no buffer between the plots. This means potential conventional agrichemical drift, not to mention pests or disease is almost guaranteed if your neighbors have an issue. The pest and disease from neighboring plots migrated much slower into the biologically grown crop giving the farmers time to assess and manage the issue using an appropriate biocontrol. Usually it's a very fast downward spiral that happens so fast the farmers cannot react quick enough to have an impactful strategy to save the crop. 

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Increased weight per 1000 grains of wet rice - This achievement is perplexing. The official record for 1000 wet grains of rice is 27 grams. The weight of our trial was 38 grams for1000 grains of wet rice!  Obviously, this trial needs to be replicated but this a great indication that we are heading in the right direction. Early data from another current trial is showing similar trends. 

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Decreased Seedling time - The time it takes rice seedlings in nursery trays to reach aa certain biomass to be planted out in the field via transplanter is normally 12-13 days. The seeds inoculated with compost extract were ready in 9-10 days. The soil was identical in the treatment and control. The seedlings also performed better and there was very little transplant shock. Rice seedlings, without the compost extract, would normally sit stagnant  in the field and not grow the first week due to the transplant shock.The extract treated seedings would grow in the first week and look much healthier. This, along with quicker reaching sufficient biomass for transplanting significantly further reduces production time. 

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