Muntok white pepper is going green

Pangkalpinang, Feb 25 (Antara) - Muntok white pepper is now going green as the planting is more environmentally friendly by applying local wisdom.

"Instead of using more pesticides or any other chemical fertilizers, we apply our local wisdom such as cutting piper bettle and pepper," senior officer of Department of agriculture and husbandry Bangka Belitung Acrhipelago Province, Sunardi, in Pangkalpinang on Monday.

The technique is removing a small amount of piper bettle as the parent plant then attached to pepper plant.

"By doing so, the new pepper plant will be more resilience to certains diseases such as stem rotten as piper bettle consists antiseptic material," he said.

For this new program, Bangka Belitung Province has prepared one hectare pepper plantation or about 2.471 acres.

"That plantation will hopefully be the pilot project that can be developed widely accross Bangka belitung," he said.

By cutting piper bettle and pepper, the new pepper plant si said to be more green and the taste is more spicy.

"However, we still can not calculate the amount of the production as this project is only two years old," he said.

Muntok white pepper is widely known as the number one pepper all around the globe.

In 2012, Bangka Belitung archipelago province produced as much as 23,000 tons of white pepper with the price IDR75,000 or about US$7.72 per kilogram from the farmers.