Search

Due to its complex and often difficult nature, suboptimal lands are either under-utilized and left as abandoned space or over-utilized and generate environment problems. In reality, it can be the answer to the future challenge in 2050, where the growing population needs more food to survive. It results in intense competition in land conversion to agricultural and nonagricultural purposes. This paper introduces Water Management Trinity as an integrated water management system applied to exert the highest benefits from sustainable suboptimal lands cultivation in Pulau Burung District for at least the last 50 years. The three main components: the canal, the dike, also the dam and water gate principally regulate the freshwater from the precipitation events. With a cumulative length of more than 4000 km, the canals hold a volume of at least 45 million m3 of freshwater. Combined with the soil technology, the current agriculture practice is proven to reduce environmental damage by maintaining the land humidity so that the fire and flooding risk are both diminished while the land subsidence rate is kept under 0-4 cm/year in the last ten years. Simultaneously, the local socioeconomic sector flourishes as the system secures the water requirement for plant commodities production and supports freshwater supply.

In the near future, the food insecurity risk is escalating if the surging population is not followed by increasing youth farmers while arable land is on a declining trend. Only 4 per cent (less than 3.5 million) youth aged 15-35 work as a farmer in Indonesia since the current general perspective of working in agriculture sector seems unpromising for most youth. This worsens the state of food insecurity unless there is a breakthrough to ignite youth interest. While the proportion of youth population both in rural and urban Indonesia are relatively similar (23 per cent and 25 per cent respectively in 2018), different approaches might be needed. Fortunately, many initiatives have been commenced to appeal to more youth. These approaches allow youth to acquire agriculture skills, from enabling land access to exposing the sector to the digital world. Using the available information acquired from secondary data and interviews, this study aims to identify, compare, and define the most viable approach amongst the existing initiatives, including land access, crop insurance, and incentive for youth farmers in rural area; and mainstreaming digital platform such as peer-to-peer lending, local product promotion, and vertical farming to engage urban youth. Eventually, the recommendation from this study will optimize youth role in improving the state of food security

Transverse vaginal septum is a rare female genital tract anomaly which may occur exclusive of any concomitant anomalies. We report the case of a pre menercheal girl who presented at our resource constrained center with primary amenorrhoea and cyclic abdominal pain. We performed a resection of the transverse vaginal septum and followed it up with the introduction of a Foley catheter in the vagina. After 4 weeks of discharge, no septal closure was present, and the menstrual flow was normal.

Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) usage has increased recently due to the decreasing supply of liquid asphalt and concerns over adverse health effects when making use of petroleum-based/chemical recycling agents which increased the need for bio-based recycling agents designed to return the RAP binder to its original state. The objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of using jatropha curcas oil (JCO), which is a non-edible oil (do not compete with the food chain) that cannot be used for nutritional purposes due to the presence of anti-nutritional factors, such as phorbol esters, as a bio-base rejuvenating agent for aged bitumen. The physical properties and storage stability of the bio-oil, original bitumen, aged bitumen and rejuvenated bitumen were measured. The results of the investigation indicated that the bio-oil have potential to rejuvenate aged bitumen to condition that resembled the original bitumen, the use of the bio-oil show benefits from both health and environmental perspectives. Also the rejuvenated bitumen was found to be very stable in term of storage.