After the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit many business sectors, the orchid cultivation business has survived and shows bright prospects. World market demand for Indonesian orchids continues to increase due to their beauty and variety. However, the technique of cultivating orchids using seeds is difficult because orchids do not have endosperm, making it difficult to germinate. Some orchids have been successfully germinated by farmers but there are some exotic orchids that are still constrained.
In response to these problems, lecturers from the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas Airlangga held a community service activity aimed at the Sanderiana Farmer Group. With the theme “Empowerment of Orchid Farmers Community Group Sanderiana Farmers Group Dadaprejo Village, Junrejo District, Batu City, East Java through Tissue Culture Training for Cultivating Orchids that are Threatened with Extinction,” which was carried out in July-October 2024 at “DD Orchid Nursery” in Batu City.
This activity began with the screening of problems faced by orchid farmers, the implementation of training and evaluation of training results. The training began on August 11, 2024, including lectures and practical materials, followed by an evaluation of the planting results on September 11, 2024 and finally on October 11, 2024.
The team for this activity was Dwi Kusuma Wahyuni, Ph.D., Prof. Hery Purnobasuki, Ph.D., Prof. Dr. Edy Setiti Wida Utami, M.S., Dr. Junairiah, S.Si., M.Kes., and Dr. Hamidah, M.Kes. In addition to the lecturer team, this implementation was also assisted by students. This activity was also attended by international students participating in the AEGIS program (summer program of Faculty of Science and Technology Unair). Dwi Kusuma Wahyuni, as the head of this activity said: “Through this training activity, we want to help orchid farmers “Sanderiana Farmer Group” to be able to produce orchid seeds using tissue culture techniques independently so as to ensure the availability of quality, efficient, and sustainable orchid seeds. Furthermore, this activity is also an effort to introduce the richness of Indonesian orchids to international students.” This activity is also supported by Taman Husada Graha Famili to promote medicinal orchids.
In this community service, participants were invited to get to know Indonesian endemic orchids and how to cultivate them. Furthermore, participants also directly practiced tissue culture techniques to produce quality orchid seedlings. First of all, Prof. Edy Setiti Wida Utami, as the presenter, explained the basic knowledge about orchids and introduced various tissue culture techniques used to propagate orchid seedlings.
Furthermore, a demonstration of orchid tissue culture cultivation methods was held, and followed by each participant practicing directly the techniques taught with the assistance of lecturers and students. On this occasion, participants were assisted in performing orchid propagation techniques using bud eyes as culture material. “It’s visible, yes. It will be extracted using a sterile knife,” said Dwi Kusuma Wahyuni while demonstrating the process of taking a bud eye on an orchid plant. She continued, each cell in the bud eye, when successfully planted on the media will develop into a whole plant. Not only followed by the orchid farming community, this community service was also attended by internship students who served in the “DD Orchid Nursery” from various universities. All participants were very enthusiastic in participating in the entire series of activities and were grateful for the implementation of this community service. “So far, what we know is planting, caring, fertilizing, and so on. It turns out that I just know some breeding, especially orchid plants through tissue culture from what has been presented earlier,” said one of the participants in the testimonial session.
