Training on Fungal Biopesticide Preparation for Larval Pest on Food Crops for Young Farmer Group ‘PMS’ in Kalasan

Abstract

Young farmer group Putra Mandiri Sejahtera (PMS) in Sambirejo Village, Selomartani, Kalasan, is actively involved in organic farming. Their vision is to advance agriculture through extension programs, training, mentoring, and cultivating food crops by implementing agricultural innovation technology. The challenges they often face are larval pests that attack many crops, which are difficult to overcome. Efforts that can be made are providing techniques for the identification of larval pests and their biological agent, preparing fungal biopesticides, and applying control methods by technical culture. Stages in these activities include (1) an extension program on the identification of pests and their biological agent, (2) training on fungal biopesticide preparation, and (3) mentoring and monitoring of the farmers’ activities by applying pre-and post-test. The community service results demonstrated that the extension program on larval pest identification had improved the farmers’ understanding by 72.22% and increased their willingness to learn further. The following training on fungal biopesticide preparation showed that the farmers’ skills improved by 95.24%, despite the fact that the remaining 4.76% of the farmers required more training to achieve more confidence. In addition, it was also found that 57.14% of the farmers stated they had mastered the biopesticide preparation, while the remaining 42.85% of the farmers required further training and mentoring. The output of this extension program was two types of fungal biopesticides, Beauveria sp. and Metarrhizium sp., produced by the young farmer group Putra Mandiri Sejahtera (PMS).