PENEMU INANG PRIMER CENDANA

PROFIL KOMANG SURATA

Dikuti dari Kompas.com pada Jumat, 17 Desember 2010 | 13:15 WIB

Cendana atau Santalum album Linn adalah jenis tumbuhan bersifat semiparasit. Oleh karena itu, dalam siklus hidupnya, cendana membutuhkan pohon inang. Krokot atau Althernantera sp adalah jenis tumbuhan lokal yang paling sesuai sebagai inang primer ketika anakan cendana sedang dalam persemaian.

Penggunaan krokot sebagai inang cendana yang kini dipraktikkan di banyak tempat di dunia adalah hasil temuan Komang Surata, peneliti utama Balai Penelitian Kehutanan Kupang, Nusa Tenggara Timur.

"Saya menikmati menjadi peneliti, tetapi kebahagiaan terasa memuncak ketika hasil penelitian saya diakui dan dimanfaatkan secara luas hingga dunia internasional," kata Komang Surata di Kota Kupang, lepas siang Kamis (25/11/2010) itu.

Dalam siklus kehidupan cendana, sejak persemaian hingga dipanen pada usia 30 tahun, membutuhkan tiga tahapan inang dari jenis pohon berbeda.

Setelah krokot pada masa persemaian, pertumbuhan cendana membutuhkan inang sekunder dari jenis pohon turi atau gala gala (Sebasnia grandiflora) atau akasia (Acacia villosa) untuk jangka menengah. Selanjutnya, inang johar (Casuarina junghunniana) dibutuhkan untuk pendampingan jangka panjang. Pohon inang itu dibutuhkan guna membantu penyerapan unsur hara dari tanah.

"Penggunaan inang gala gala atau turi sebenarnya hasil temuan saya juga, tetapi yang monumental itu temuan inang krokot karena sekarang menjadi pilihan utama sebagai inang primer dalam pembudidayaan cendana secara internasional," kata Komang Surata yang menjadi peneliti sejak 1987, dua tahun setelah dia menyelesaikan kuliah di Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB).

Hampir punah

Cendana adalah jenis pohon endemik NTT. Oleh karena aromanya yang harum, cendana telah mencuatkan kawasan NTT sejak abad ke-4. Pada abad ke-7, cendana asal NTT dilaporkan berhasil menembus pasaran India dan China.

Mulai abad ke-14, para pedagang dari kedua negara tersebut sampai berkunjung langsung ke NTT untuk membeli cendana dan madu. Hingga 1990-an, cendana menjadi penyumbang terbesar Pendapatan Asli Daerah NTT.

Namun, akhir 1990-an, hampir mustahil menemukan pohon cendana di kawasan hutan. Tegakan tersisa hanya bisa dijumpai di kebun dan pekarangan penduduk, itu pun amat jarang. Salah satu penyebab utama kehancuran cendana di Timor dan pulau lain di NTT adalah regulasi yang tidak berpihak kepada masyarakat.

Sejak zaman Belanda hingga Indonesia merdeka, cendana, baik yang tumbuh di kawasan hutan, di kebun, maupun pekarangan penduduk, diklaim menjadi milik pemerintah. Masyarakat diwajibkan menjaga dan merawat cendana, tetapi hanya pemerintah yang berhak memanfaatkannya. Masyarakat yang melalaikan ketentuan itu akan dikenai sanksi. Akibatnya, cendana dianggap masyarakat sebagai pembawa petaka.

Kesadaran nyaris punahnya cendana membuat pemerintah mengubah kebijakan dengan payung Peraturan Daerah No 2/1999 yang berpihak kepada masyarakat.

Gubernur NTT Frans Lebu Raya sejak awal kepemimpinannya pada 2008 mencanangkan pembudidayaan cendana guna mengembalikan NTT sebagai "provinsi cendana". Tekad itu sekaligus mencuatkan nama krokot karena dibutuhkan sebagai inang saat persemaian bibit cendana.

Sebelumnya, persemaian cendana menggunakan inang tanaman cabai (Capsicum annum), sebagaimana direkomendasikan peneliti IPB, Jufriansah, pada 1970-an.

Sejak bertugas di Balai Penelitian Kehutanan Kupang, Komang Surata mencatat sejumlah kelemahan pohon cabai sebagai inang primer cendana. Di antaranya, pohon cabai sulit hidup ketika dipindahkan dari tempat tumbuh awalnya. Kelemahan lain, sulit mendapatkan benih cabai dalam jumlah banyak, terancam mati jika tajuk pohonnya dipangkas, serta tak mampu bertahan hidup di antara rerumputan lain.

Surata lalu berinisiatif melakukan penelitian sejak 1988. Ia melakukan berbagai uji coba guna mendapatkan inang primer pengganti. Dua tahun kemudian ia menemukan krokot sebagai inang primer pengganti tanaman cabai.

"Uji coba itu melibatkan 18 jenis tumbuhan sebagai calon inang, termasuk cabai. Hasil akhirnya menunjukkan, krokot paling cocok sebagai inang primer," katanya.

Keunggulan krokot

Krokot memiliki sejumlah keunggulan. Menurut Surata, krokot sangat membantu pertumbuhan cendana selama masa persemaian. Krokot juga tidak menimbulkan kompetisi, tajuknya kecil, sistem perakaran sukulen atau lunak, mudah tumbuh setelah dipangkas, berumur panjang, relatif mudah didapat, serta tahan hidup dalam kekeringan.

Hasil temuan inang krokot itu dipublikasikan dalam jurnal ilmiah internasional, Sandalwood Newsletter, di Australia pada 1992. Setelah publikasi, pemanfaatan krokot sebagai inang primer cendana meluas di dunia internasional, antara lain di Australia bagian barat serta di sejumlah negara Pasifik, seperti Fiji, Kaledonia, Solomon, dan Vanuatu.

Kini, Surata sedang menekuni model budidaya cendana melalui regenerasi tunas, yakni memotong beberapa jaringan akar di sekitar kaki pohon cendana dewasa. Jika pemotongan dilakukan secara benar dan tepat waktu, yakni dengan memerhatikan perkembangan akar diikuti pengaturan iklim mikro, bagian akar yang terputus dari induknya akan bertunas sebagai anakan baru.

"Mimpi kami ke depan dalam budidaya cendana di NTT adalah pohon cendana punya anakan alam dari tunas akarnya sendiri, sebelum pohon induk ditebang setelah mencapai usia panen 30 tahun. Proses regenerasi anakan cendana bisa dilakukan secara variatif mengikuti siklus tebangan," kata Surata, ilmuwan asal Karangasem, Bali, tersebut.(Frans Sarong)

HOST INVENTOR SANDALWOOD PRIMARY

Cendana or Santalum album Linn is the kind of plants are semiparasit. Therefore, in their life cycle, sandalwood require the host tree. Purslane or Althernantera sp is a local plant species best suited as a primary host when the sandalwood saplings were in nurseries.
Use of purslane as a host of sandalwood which is now practiced in many places in the world is Komal Surata findings, lead researcher of Research Institute of Forestry Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. "I enjoy being the researcher, but happiness was heightened when the results of my research is widely recognized and utilized up to the international world," said Komal Surata in the city of Kupang, in the afternoon on Thursday (11/25/2010) it.

In the life cycle of sandalwood, from nursery to be harvested at age 30, requires three stages of a host of different tree species. After purslane in the seedbed, sandalwood growth requires a secondary host of tree species turi or gala gala (Sebasnia grandiflora) or acacia (Acacia villosa) for the medium term. Furthermore, host johar (Casuarina junghunniana) is required for long-term assistance. Host trees that are needed to assist the absorption of nutrients from the soil.

"The use of host gala gala or turi actually my findings as well, but the monumental discovery that host purslane because now the top choice as the primary host in the cultivation of sandalwood internationally," said Komal Surata the researcher since 1987, two years after he completed college at Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB).

Nearly extinct

Cendana is endemic tree species NTT. Therefore, a fragrant aroma, sandalwood has raised NTT region since the 4th century. In the 7th century, sandalwood from NTT reported to successfully penetrate the markets of India and China.
Start the 14th century, traders from both countries to travel directly to NTT to buy sandalwood and honey. Until the 1990s, sandalwood became the largest contributor to NTT's original income.

However, the late 1990s, almost impossible to find sandalwood trees in the forest. Remaining stands can only be found in the garden and yard of the population, it was very rare. One of the main causes of the destruction of sandalwood in Timor and other islands in East Nusa Tenggara is a regulation that is not aligned to the public.

Since the days of Dutch until Indonesia's independence, sandalwood, both growing in forest area, in the garden, or yard of the population, claimed to be owned by the government. Communities are required to maintain and care for sandalwood, but the government is only entitled to use it. People who ignore the provisions that would be sanctioned. As a result, sandalwood are considered society as the bearer of misfortune.

Awareness of almost extinction of sandalwood make the government change the policy with an umbrella and No. 2 / 1999 in favor to the community.

NTT Governor Frans Lebu Kingdom since the beginning of his leadership in 2008 launched the cultivation of sandalwood in order to restore the NTT as a "province of sandalwood." Determination was at once raised the name of purslane because it needed a host for sandalwood seedlings at the nursery. Previously, using a host-plant nursery sandalwood pepper (Capsicum annuum), as recommended researchers IPB, Jufriansah, in the 1970s.

Since serving in the Forestry Research Institute of Kupang, Komal Surata noted a number of weaknesses pepper tree as the primary host of sandalwood. Among other things, chili pepper tree is difficult to live when moved from place to grow initially. Another drawback, it's hard to get chili seeds in large quantities, threatened to death if pruned tree canopies, and can not survive among other grasses.

Surata then took the initiative to do research since 1988. He conducted various tests in order to obtain a replacement primary host. Two years later he found purslane as primary substitute host pepper plant. "The trial involves 18 types of plants as potential hosts, including chili. The final results showed that purslane is best suited as a primary host," he said.

Excellence purslane

Purslane has a number of advantages. According Surata, purslane is very helpful during the nursery growth of sandalwood. Purslane also did not result in competition, a small canopy, root system succulent or soft, easy to grow after the cut, long-lived, relatively easy to obtain, as well as survival in drought.

Purslane host findings were published in international scientific journals, Sandalwood Newsletter, in Australia in 1992. After publication, the use of purslane as a primary host Sandalwood extends internationally, including in Australia's western Pacific and in some countries, like Fiji, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.

Now, Surata sandalwood cultivation model is being engaged through the regeneration of shoots, ie, cutting some roots network around the foot of mature sandalwood trees. If cutting is done correctly and on time, ie by looking at root development followed micro-climate regulation, the roots are cut off from its parent will germinate as a new puppy.

"Our dream ahead in the cultivation of sandalwood in East Nusa Tenggara is a sandalwood tree seedling roots nature of the shoot itself, before the mother plant crop harvested after reaching the age of 30 years. The process of regeneration of sandalwood seedlings can be done in varied following the harvest cycle," said Surata, a scientist from Karangasem, Bali, is. (Frans Sarong)