The Potential of Sorghum as a Cereal Crop on Peatlands
The area in the town of Dumai consists of 80% peatland7 and it has been affected by peat fires and haze. The development of PT KPI’s sorghum program began as a response to the fires. They are committed to support activities that mitigate the fires as well as helping to develop communities that live on peatland. In the program, they collaborated with the Agricultural Technology Assessment Center (BPTP) of Riau to introduce sorghum to the ‘Alam Tani’ farmer group as a possible livelihood. They first tried planting sorghum on one hectare in December 2022 and six months later had their first harvest, of which 20 kg was sold.