City vows to keep Ragunan orchid park
City vows to keep Ragunan orchid park
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has vowed to retain the
only orchid park it owns in Ragunan, South Jakarta, in an effort
to keep its green campaign alive, a deputy governor says.
R.S. Museno, deputy governor on social affairs, said over the
weekend that the administration will not eliminate green areas to
make way for high-rise buildings. "Therefore, this five-hectare
orchid park must be preserved as part of the city's green areas,"
Museno said while opening the Orchid Park Promotion Week in
Ragunan on Saturday.
The promotion week, which ends on May 19, consists of a
seminar, orchid arrangement contest, orchid cultivation
presentation and orchid bazaar. All activities are being held at
the orchid park in Ragunan.
The park, established in 1973, will also function as an orchid
development center, where new types of orchids are seeded and
people are trained to plant and care for orchids correctly,
Museno said. "In this way, the park is expected to play a role in
orchid exports."
The head of the city agriculture agency, Ruchiyat
Padmakusumah, said on Saturday that most orchid farmers at the
park are still facing several hurdles in terms of export
competition with other countries, including Thailand.
"Most of the farmers cannot consistently produce a large
number of good quality orchids," he said.
He explained that the only way to produce a mass quantity of
orchids is through tissue culture technology. He said his office
is beginning to introduce the technology to the farmers.
The April 17, 1995 edition of Indonesia Business Weekly
indicated that -- from 1991 to 1994 -- Singapore, Hong Kong,
Japan and Saudi Arabia were constant buyers of Indonesian
orchids.
Since 1993, Japan and Saudi Arabia have not made any further
purchases of Indonesian orchids. In 1993 and 1994, Singapore
bought 526.8 tons of orchids from Indonesia and Hong Kong bought
367.4 tons.
Poorly promoted
Ruchiyat said his office is also helping the farmers with
different types of training, including improving their skills in
creating new types of orchids.
However, Ruchiyat said only a few Jakartans know about the
park and its facilities, due to a lack of promotion.
"This initial promotion activity is aimed at making those
orchid lovers and those interested in planting the flower aware
of the park's existence," Ruchiyat said.
The park is part of Pasar Minggu's agro-tourism center. The
other sources of interest are the Ragunan zoo, a horticulture
seed plantation, a Ciganjur fruit plantation, a fishery center
and Babakan lake, all of which can attract tourists from other
provinces or countries.
The orchid park is divided into 40 plots for the farmers, who
each rent a 1,000 square-meter area. The farmers are only charged
Rp 25,000 (US$10.86) in monthly rental fees by the
administration.
"Most of them are small-scale orchid farmers and we are
helping them to develop their business," Ruchiyat said, adding
that there are more than 100 types of orchids in the park.
The flower's price ranges from Rp 400 to Rp 40,000 each.
(yns)