Catfish farming has been an uncommon activity since several areas undertake it for public prosperity. It became the main program of Economic and Community Empowerment Council PCM Jatianom, Klaten, to develop catfish propagation in Jatianom. The council cooperated with Community Empowerment Council (MPM) of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. “For one reason, we focus on empowerment aspects as agriculture, fishery, and animal farm while Jatinom concern with seed and catfish harvest,” told Shofiatin, Empowerment Head of Economic and Community Empowerment Council Jatianom, interviewed on Thursday (15/5) in Jatianom.
One of the Muhammadiyah figures Prof. Dr. H. Amin Rais also supported the program. “Alhamdulillah, I could attend the event organized by Economic and Community Empowerment Council PCM Jatianom and MPM Yogyakarta. I do support the program because it is very great. I wish it could run endlessly and people in Jatiaonom could be independent,” he stated.
Sofiati informed that one of the programs of Economic and Community Empowerment Council PCM Jatianom was catfish farming empowerment and monitoring. In fact, the farming was divided into three groups which were spawning, nursery, and magnification. Two programs, spawning and nursery, was conducted two years ago. “Spawning is breeding the other which would produce 2-centimeter catfish baby, and it is put in nursery group which refers to maintaining the catfish till 7-centimeter length. Then, it has been ready to be seeded in magnification group,” she elucidated.
In the magnification phase, it was necessary to prepare feed for the catfish. “Finally, we got alternative feed this year to substitute manufactured pellets which cost expensive. The alternative feed was made from fragmented tofu dregs with probiotic as well as silicate organic and PTO. We have a special team to produce probiotic and silicate organic. Thus, we only need apply the tofu dregs through fragmentation,” she uttered.
Shofiatin inserted that they chose tofu dregs since it could easily get and it costs cheap. The tofu dregs contain very high protein about 18%-20%. “However, the tofu dregs only are very less. Then, we thought how to elevate the protein contents. Ultimately, it was found out that fragmentation would reveal maggots containing 40% of protein. On the other word, the catfish would have nutrient as consuming pellets. The other merit is that the catfish would grow bigger since they consume fresh protein which it would shorten the harvest time,” she added.
Shofiatin also explained that the program was engaged in youth and community. Her party would also carry out training for the youth and community who are interested in catfish farming. “In the program, we would facilitate and monitor entirely. For instance, we would prepare the mother till nursery and share how the catfish are proper to sell. The crux is that the program would accommodate everything. They do not need to get confused. They only have to think how to maintain and produce healthy catfish,” she asserted.
Furthermore, Shofiatin expected that the program could be the main program of MPM and could support entirely the 47th Muhammadiyah Congress being held in Makassar. “The activity was the core to promote that we organize a positive activity for people in Jatianom. I hope that this program could inspire other villages so that we could cooperate. It is also expected that this program could be promoted in the 47th Muhammadiyah Congress in Makassar,” she expected.
