Prospek Pengembangan Kapas Organik di Indonesia - Titiek Yulianti (Buletin Tanaman Tembakau, Serat & Minyak Industri, 2011)
Sistem pertanian organik pada tanaman pangan mulai diminati masyarakat karena produknya lebih sehat dan pengelolaannya memperhatikan lingkungan, siklus biologi, dan keanekaragaman hayati setempat. Kecende-rungan ini merembet ke tanaman nonpangan, seperti kapas yang menggunakan pestisida dan pupuk sintetis sangat besar. Syarat pengembangan kapas organik cukup ketat karena selain larangan menggunakan bahan kimia sintetis, juga pendokumentasian untuk memperoleh sertifikat organik. Meskipun serat kapas organik harganya lebih tinggi, namun produktivitasnya cenderung rendah. Keuntungan yang paling signifikan dalam pengembangan kapas organik adalah perbaikan lingkungan, mulai dari kesuburan lahan, aktivitas mikroba, dan siklus biologi sampai peningkatan keanekaragaman hayati. Pengembangan kapas di Indonesia masih menghadapi masalah rendahnya produktivitas dan pemenuhan kebutuhan dalam negeri sehingga pengem-bangan kapas organik belum menjadi prioritas meskipun kelestarian biologi dan lingkungan harus tetap di-perhatikan. Oleh karena itu, sistem pertanian input rendah yang berkelanjutan dan ramah lingkungan meru-pakan pilihan yang dapat dikembangkan untuk kapas. People are now paying more interest on healthy products from organic agriculture especially for food crops. Organic agriculture system based on ecological concern which enhances biodiversity, biological cycles of the land. This interest is now moving to nonfood crops, such as cotton that need high concentration of pesticide and fertilizer for its production. Developing organic cotton requires strictly standard and condition, such as no synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides, or detail documents to get organic sertificate. Although, price of organic cotton fiber is higher, but its production is lower compared to conventional one. However, there are still significant advantages in developing organic cotton, i.e. environmental improvements: from soil ferti-lities, microbial activities, biological cycles to promoting biodiversity. At the moment, the need of cotton fiber is mainly from import, on the other side organic cotton productivity tends to low. Hence, development of or-ganic cotton is not priority, yet biological and environmental sustainability ask for attention. Another alterna-tive choice which more practicable to develop cotton in Indonesia is a sustainable and ecofriendly with low input agricultural system.