The effectiveness of “Biosaka” to reduce the use of synthetic chemical fertilizer on sweet corn in supporting food resilience

Market demand for sweet corn has not been met, partly due to low soil fertility and the high price of synthetic chemical fertilizers. Farmers generally use synthetic chemical fertilizers for practical reasons. However, with the enactment of Minister of Agriculture Regulation Number 10 of 2022, farmers have difficulty obtaining allocations of subsidized fertilizer and the price of non-subsidized fertilizer is high. One effort to overcome this is by using biosaka. Biosaka has the ability to increase production and reduce the dosage of synthetic chemical fertilizer use by 50-90%. Biosaka is not an organic fertilizer but is referred to as an elicitor which is capable of triggering physiological, morphological responses and the accumulation of phytoalexin. Seeing the large benefits and potential of biosaka, it is necessary to carry out research on the effectiveness of biosaka application in reducing the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers on sweet corn plants. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of biosaka on production and its efficacy in minimizing the reliance on artificial chemical fertilizers. This research was structured in a randomized block design (RBD) with 7 treatments, namely NPK dose of 300 kg ha−1 (BI0), Biosaka+NPK dose of 150 kg ha−1 (BI1), Biosaka+NPK dose of 120 kg ha−1 (BI2), Biosaka+NPK dose of 90 kg ha−1 (BI3), Biosaka+NPK dose of 60 kg ha−1 (BI4), Biosaka+NPK dose of 30 kg ha−1 (BI5), and only biosaka ( BI6). The results of analysis of variance and further tests using RBD level of 5% showed that the application of biosaka had a significant effect on increasing plant height, wet cob weight and cob length. Biosaka with NPK dose of 150 kg ha−1 treatment produced sweet corn production that was not significantly different from NPK dose of 300 kg ha−1 without biosaka treatment.