The life philosophy of nandur sing dipangan, mangan sing ditandur (plant what is eaten, eat what is planted) led her to see the rice plant as a goddess.
“Rice is known as Dewi Sri, but she has a sister, named Dewi Anjali. Well, Dewi Anjali is known in life as the jali plant,” said Sukrisno when contacted by Espos.id via telephone, Friday (16/6/2023).
This life grip made Sukrisno love Dewi Anjali so much. The proof is, Sukrisno even made a song for her. A special keroncong style entitled Deworejo (Sukorejo Tourism Village) he made specifically to tell the story of Dewi Sri and Dewi Anjali.
According to Sukrisno, the relationship between rice and jali is closer than people imagine. Rice and jali plants both have panicles containing grains of fruit, but jali fruit is larger. Its shape is round while its color is black.
This is what then made him try to cultivate jali since 2022. Using the food security budget through village funds, he started planting jali on village land, precisely between durian plants.
Between two durian trees, Sukrisno tried to plant approximately 10 jali plants. His first harvest was in 2022, producing 1 ton 7 quintals.
He used some of the abundant results to be seeds for planting in 2023.
“I sold the rest to the eLSi Camp company, a kind of NGO company that introduced me to this jali,” said Sukrisno.
Laudato Si’ Camp or eLSi Camp is an NGO community that focuses on the economy of the people. They develop food from jali seeds and Sukorejo Village is one of the locations where they develop this program.
It is not without reason that Sukrisno sells his harvest to the company in Central Java. The harvest of jali has a sharp outer skin and is difficult to peel, unlike rice with grain that can be peeled at any time.
With a humble heart , Sukrisno admitted that his team was not yet able to peel the jali seeds so that they could be processed into food ingredients like grain into rice.
He considered this as a limitation because his steps to diversify food with jali seeds had only just begun.
Sukrisno admitted that eLSi Camp would provide Sukorejo Village with a squeezing machine if their production of jali seeds was abundant and continuous. Impatient with the results, Sukrisno was enthusiastic about building a supportive environment for jali seed production.
He did this by starting to work on village regulations (Perdes) about inviting the people of Sukorejo Village to plant and consume jali seeds. Sukrisno admitted that the community was enthusiastic about the food diversification program.
Sukrisno can be proud, the jali seed program has started running and it is all thanks to him. Currently the program has reached post-harvest training and processing.
Laughing, Sukrisno also said that jali is a native plant of Sragen that was previously consumed before the Green Revolution. Now, the largest jali production is in Sukorejo and has not been found in other areas of Sragen.
Sukrisno himself loves jali seeds because it makes his diet easier. He shyly admitted that he can eat rice five times a day.
But when consuming jali for three days, every day Sukrisno only needed to eat twice a day. He was amazed by that.
After he studied it, jali is indeed a high-calorie and low-sugar grain. That’s why he was enthusiastic about initiating a food diversification program with jali.
The challenge in developing jali cultivation is peeling the seed skin. Sukrisno admitted that the seeds are sharp enough that they can injure the person peeling the seeds. However, Sukrisno is optimistic that the people of Sukorejo Village can process it well.
Jali seeds can be processed easily, including into rice, sponge cake, jali juice drink, sticky rice, and porridge. Sukrisno gave tips on cooking jali seeds into rice, namely the amount of water used to cook it is more than the water used to cook rice.
Another advantage is that it can be planted because it is not easily killed like weeds. The plant is a clump of rice with a height of up to two meters.
Jali is also easy to harvest. Sukrisno admitted that once planting jali can get three harvest periods