SINTANG-Sintang Regent, Jarot Winarno visited a tea plantation in Pengkadan Baru Village, Dedai District, yesterday. During his visit, the number one person in Senentang said that this tea commodity can only grow in high mountain areas. However, now these commodities can be planted in the lowlands. “In the past, tea could only grow in high mountains. It could only be grown in highlands, such as the islands of Sumatra and West Java, where there was a lot of fog and in cold weather.
Now we are trying to develop it on the island of Kalimantan and it turns out that tea can be grown in lowlands like this island of Borneo, like in Sintang,” said Jarot while attending the launching of Borneo Tea in Pengkadan Baru Village, Dedai District.
He said that the cultivation of this tea commodity had been proven in other places, such as in Sepulut Village, Sepauk District. His party has proven in Sepauk and the results can thrive in a short time. “We have proven it, we tried to plant tea in Sepauk, it turns out that it can grow and is in a good category and it turns out that it can grow in a shorter time, even the tea plants can be harvested at the age of 3 years,” he added.
So far, continued Jarot, people only think of an extractive economy by exploiting natural resources such as rubber and palm oil. According to him, why not develop a more creative economy such as tea, cacao and sengkubang leaves which also have economic value. “Therefore, we develop this Borneo tea, from this village we start it. We make a demonstration plot for a bigger tea nursery, we expand our garden, so that West Kalimantan is the best producer of Borneo tea,” said Jarot.
Meanwhile, Chairperson of the Solidaridad Foundation, Delima, said that the launch of the Borneo Tea started from Pengakadan Village. She hopes that what has been started can continue to be developed and produced more widely. “We from the Solidaridad Foundation and the Keling Kumang Group are ready to help develop tea production from the Sintang area, even though they say the lowlands are only 28 thousand km above sea level. We are optimistic that we can develop tea from Sintang Regency,” she said.
Activities like this, added Delima, are hoped to be able to change the economy for underprivileged people and we can make a transition from monotonous farming to farming based on farmer groups. “We have an idea that tea production can move to West Kalimantan, and can even spread across other Kalimantan islands,” she concluded.
Source: https://pontianakpost.co.id/teh-borneo-lahir-di-sintang/
