Members of the consortium inspecting the land for planting superior sorghum seeds belonging to PT Petrokimia Gresik

ITS Campus, ITS News – Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) continue to support national food security by following up with the President of the Republic of Indonesia (RI), Joko Widodo, regarding increasing sorghum production and developing wheat policies in Indonesia. This is evidenced by the formation of a consortium for developing superior varieties of sorghum between ITS and Hasanuddin University (Unhas), the National Innovation Research Agency (BRIN), and PT Petrokimia Gresik.

This collaboration will develop renewable superior sorghum seeds as an alternative food ingredient close to wheat flour products. Then, this superior sorghum variety will be created from crosses and genome editing using a bioinformatics approach to obtain superior types with characteristics.

Director of Research and Community Service (DRPM) ITS Fadlilatul Taufany ST PhD explained this consortium was formed by seeing opportunities for sorghum as an ingredient that can be used as a substitute for wheat flour. “So far, Indonesia has been very dependent on foreign production and has also been triggered by the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has an impact on world wheat stocks,” said the lecturer, who is familiarly called Taufany.

Seeing this and the sorghum tagline, which is 3F (Food, Feed, and Fuel), according to this ITS Chemical Engineering Department lecturer, sorghum seeds can be used for food, and stem parts can be used as animal feed and biofuel. Not only that, based on the 2022-2024 sorghum roadmap, the production target in 2023 is also 444,084 tons, so large quantities of superior sorghum seeds are needed.

Given the importance of these commodities, ITS and this consortium are believed by Taufany not only to support the roadmap target but also to provide sorghum which is expected to fulfill the taste of the community. ITS will certainly develop science and technology to contribute to realizing this program by making quality sorghum by developing superior varieties.

In terms of DRPM ITS itself, of course, it fully supports this research to produce sorghum with superior varieties that benefit the community. “This support will be carried out either in a research scheme or in community service through several Real Work Lecture (KKN) activities,” he said.

One of the researchers from ITS, Prof. Drs Ec Ir Riyanarto Sarno, MSc PhD added that to support optimal growth of sorghum, the consortium team will also develop ITS Smart Farming with the Internet of Things (IoT) based technology. This technology was created to help monitor the growth and the sorghum planting environment in real-time, wherever and whenever.

The process of introduction and initial planting of sorghum seeds by members of the consortium who was accompanied by Vice President Research of PT Petrokimia Gresik Mohammad Armi Kurnia (standing)

With the technology from ITS Smart Farming, the lecturer, who is usually called Riyan, explained that monitoring can be done from outside the planting location so that monitoring can be done freely. “Varieties with various advantages combined with optimal environment and technology will produce superior and high-quality sorghum,” said the ITS Professor of Informatics Engineering.

In line with Taufany, various programs have been listed; consortium members fully hope that in the future, this activity will contribute to the realm of sorghum for biofuels as well. “The hope is not only 5 tons per hectare, but can be 8 tons per hectare with a fluffier texture of sorghum,” said Riyan. (ITS PR)

Reporter: Fauzan Fakhrizal Azmi