Author: Abdillah Yunus (Local Facilitator Local AIP Minapolitan Area Lowita, Kab. Pinrang)

Sharing knowledge and experience can enrich knowledge. This certainly applies to all things, including sharing knowledge and experience about tiger shrimp farming, which is one of the important livelihoods in Pinrang. Such is the case with Prof. Hatta Fattah, the conceptor of the Pinrang Regency minapolitan area, who had the idea to create a Field School as a non-formal education and sharing platform for tiger shrimp farmers in Pinrang.

Farmers who are familiar with the culture techniques and utilization of Phronima natural feed (endemic to Suppa Kec. that can increase tiger shrimp productivity) on a sub-district and district scale can be counted on the fingers. Therefore, since phronima has become the solution, other farmers who do not understand must be trained to understand. Well, according to Prof. Hatta, the way to make them understand, must be from farmer to farmer and done in the field. The hope is that all farmers in Pinrang Regency understand Phronima and can take advantage of it to optimize the results of their tiger shrimp farming.

February 25, 2016 was the first time the Field School was opened and was even inaugurated directly by Pinrang Regent A. Aslam Patonangi. Not only that, this activity was also attended by representatives of farmers from 6 coastal sub-districts in Pinrang Regency and several fisheries stakeholders such as aquaculture program staff from WWF-Indonesia, Head of the Provincial Aquaculture Division, Head of the Pinrang Marine and Fisheries Service (DKP), Regional Head of PT Atina, representatives of the Maros Coastal Fisheries Research Institute (Balitkanta) and the Maros Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

The first Field School was held on March 3, 2016 at 2:00 pm. Although this first meeting was located on the farm of the Phronima 1 group, under a tarpaulin and on makeshift mats, the participants were enthusiastically ready to receive new knowledge. Baharuddin, a representative of the Phronima 1 group, presented the basic principles of tiger shrimp farming using Phronima natural feed. The meeting was hosted by DKP representative of Pinrang Regency Sunarso and accompanied by Prof. Hattah Fattah.

In Baharuddin's explanation, the tiger shrimp rearing technique applied by the Phronima 1 group is essentially Phronima culture. The success of cultivation up to the harvest stage is determined by the success of Phronima culture at the land preparation stage. The participants were so excited with the material presented that the course of the material was often interspersed with direct questions by farmers from other sub-districts. However, Baharuddin's explanation became wide and unstructured because he immediately responded to questions that came suddenly. Sunarso as the moderator again directed the course of the material and appealed to other farmers to hold back questions to be expressed during the question and answer session.

The material presented by Baharuddin regarding the Phronima culture process at the first meeting of the Field School was similar to what he had previously revealed to me as a local facilitator of WWF-Indonesia. The topics included land preparation, traditional tiger shrimp farming fertilizer application methods, and Phronima (natural food) culture methods. As a local facilitator for tiger shrimp farming practice improvement activities in Pinrang, I also assisted the Field School in organizing farmers, serving as a notary, and presenter. (BMP) of tiger shrimp farming was the guideline during the presentation of materials to the participants.

Not only finished at the first meeting, the Field School will certainly be held again with different materials and places. The second Field School will be held in Lanrisang District. See you at the next Field School meeting!