PORTALJABAR, BANDUNG CITY - In the last few days, Bandung City has been hit by severe flooding caused by excessively high rainfall. However, apart from the rainfall that occurs in urban Bandung, it is also caused by the large amount of water flowing from the hills to the north of Bandung City, especially from Cimenyan sub-district, Cilengkrang sub-district and Cileunyi sub-district. All three are in the Bandung Regency area.

Chairman of the Trustees of the Odesa Indonesia Foundation, Budhiana Kartawijaya, said that since 2016 his party has taken a special role in overcoming the problem of flooding, especially mud floods due to erosion from the hills in the North Bandung area.

"Water and mud also come from small rivers in the North Bandung area. "There is an environmental condition that lacks trees so that the flow of water is not blocked and flows straight down to the city of Bandung," said Budhiana, during the activity of distributing tree seedlings to farmers, in Cikadut Village, Cimenyan District, Bandung Regency, Thursday (11/1/2024 ).

According to Budhiana, this condition cannot be separated from natural conditions where water from high hills will descend to low places, and there the city of Bandung is a gathering place for water from the hills.

Budhiana added that the large amount of water and mud cannot be separated from the condition of North Bandung which lacks trees. There are many hills there that look more like deserts than agricultural fields.

"Similarly, in the Arcamanik forest area, many trees are decreasing. It is for this objective reason that the Odesa Indonesia Foundation specifically takes on the role of improving ecology by regularly collecting seeds and distributing them to farmers," said Budhiana.

"It may not be the only solution, but if we look at the hills of northern Bandung, which for decades have looked like a desert, it is clear that this is a problem. Moreover, the land there can grow trees. "The large number of trees will bind the soil and hold water," he added.

The Odesa Indonesia Foundation has been active in social activities since 2016 in collecting donations for the distribution of hardwood tree seeds aimed at preventing erosion while improving the economy and nutrition of farmers.

Fruit trees are the mainstay of the Odesa program because growing jackfruit, soursop, breadfruit, matoa, durian, soursop, guava, oranges and so on has been proven to improve the situation. Throughout 8 years of activity, data from Odesa Indonesia has distributed fruit seeds to 870,000 trees.

"But this number is still small compared to the need for a very large area of 70,000 hectares stretching from Purwakarta to Sumedang. "Even the agricultural zone in Cimenyan District alone requires at least five to six million trees in an area of 3 to 4 thousand hectares," explained Budhiana.

In 2014, Odesa Indonesia has started distributing fruit seeds to farmers in Cimenyan District, Bandung Regency.

Coordinator of the Odesa Conservation Agriculture Program, Ujang Rusmana, said that this year he would distribute 12,000 fruit plant seeds, smaller than the distribution of seeds in the rainy season from October 2022 to April 2023, which amounted to 18,000 seeds.

“The number of trees distributed depends on the availability of donors. If there are a lot of them, it can reach 30,000. "But every year we can distribute an average of 10,000 seeds," said Ujang, when providing botany training to students at the Odesa Cikadut Botanical Garden, Bandung Regency.

The distribution of fruit seeds carried out by Odesa Indonesia is usually distributed to farmers in the hills including farmers in Mekarmanik, Cikadut, Mandala Mekar, Cimenyan, Ciburial, Sindanglaya in Cimenyan subdistrict and often extends to Cilengkrang and Cibiru subdistricts.

Farmers in Cimenyan District are now happy to grow fruit. They have also felt the benefits, especially the good harvests. Improve nutrition and earn money from sales.

"In the past, when they received government assistance, farmers didn't want to plant trees because the seeds distributed were wood-producing trees. Wood-producing trees were often cut down and had little economic value. It was different if fruit trees were planted," explained Ujang. (Parno)