Lumajang, East Java - In the attic of a 40-square-metre house, the\nmidday heat makes it stuffy due to the hot tin roof, cramped space, and\nsimple shelves serving as witnesses to an unpromising experiment: 70\nrecycled plastic bottles arranged as a hydroponic system.<\/p>\n
This modest home, with its narrow attic, belongs to Arif Hermawan\n(28), a resident of Curahpetung Village, Kedungjajang Subdistrict,\nLumajang Regency, East Java, who transformed it into a hydroponic\nlettuce farm.<\/p>\n
When he first started hydroponic farming in 2019, the early days\noffered no hope: lettuce seedlings failed to grow properly, with weak\nroots, yellowing leaves, and some dying before harvest.<\/p>\n
The sound of water flowing through PVC pipes is ordinary, but for\nArif, it is not just a daily rhythm\u2014it is a record of a long journey of\nfailures that nearly made him quit hydroponics.<\/p>\n
He repeatedly climbed the attic only to see the same failures, silent\nand unexplained. At one point, he sat quietly for a long time\u2014not from\nsurrender, but from not understanding what was happening to his\nhydroponic plants.<\/p>\n
The young man from Kedungjajang Subdistrict is not an agriculture\ngraduate but a Sharia economics graduate who previously worked as a\nsales marketer.<\/p>\n
Hydroponics was not part of his plan; he discovered it through online\nvideos and began without full confidence, trying with 70 recycled\nbottles. When attempting to apply the knowledge from video social media,\nhe kept questioning why it wasn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n
Slowly but surely, Arif began recording, observing, and repeating.\nGradually, he realised something simple: he wasn\u2019t failing at planting,\nbut hadn\u2019t yet understood the hydroponic system.<\/p>\n
With his wife, Arif shifted to a new approach. The same attic became\na small hydroponic system with 340 planting holes. Pipes were\nrearranged, water flow improved, and nutrients re-formulated.<\/p>\n
But failure didn\u2019t vanish immediately. New issues arose: pumps\nfailing in the morning, nutrient flow clogging at noon, and evening\nworries as he checked if all plants were still alive.<\/p>\n
During this phase, his body changed\u2014sleep decreased, rest times\nbecame irregular, and his hands were often wet from nutrient solution.\nYet, he kept climbing the attic daily, not out of confidence, but\nbecause he had come too far to quit.<\/p>\n
His wife played a quiet but constant role, offering comfort.\nSometimes silent, sometimes questioning if the business was worth\ncontinuing. Uncertain, but never fully abandoning the process.<\/p>\n
One morning, as usual, he climbed the attic. This time, he didn\u2019t\nfind damage. Instead, he saw a few plants standing tall, offering new\nhope. Not many, but enough to pause his exhaustion. Finding this, there\nwas a different silence.<\/p>\n
His patience rewarded him with changes in the hydroponic plants. The\nchange wasn\u2019t a big victory, but a small, almost unnoticed sign. At\nleast, the plants no longer died all at once.<\/p>\n
The lettuce began to stay greener, roots started to hold. Imperfect,\nbut enough for Arif to stop thinking his hydroponic efforts were total\nfailures.<\/p>\n
His perseverance paid off with the first hydroponic lettuce harvest,\nmaking him smile. The harvest wasn\u2019t sold; he brought it down and shared\nwith neighbours.<\/p>\n
Some residents who received free vegetables asked if they were for\nsale, and they would buy them. This became the turning point for Arif to\ntake his hydroponic business more seriously.<\/p>\n
Demand started to emerge\u2014small but enough to change how he viewed his\nwork. At that point, he decided to leave his sales marketing job.<\/p>\n
He then took a Rp65 million bank loan. Behind the number lay unseen\npressure: loan repayments, providing for his family, and the possibility\nof failing again.<\/p>\n
Arif sat quietly, not calculating profits and losses, but assessing\nthe chances of survival and expansion for his hydroponic farming\nbusiness.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/building-food-self-sufficiency-from-a-cramped-attic-1780288960", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }