These two living things can have a symbiotic relationship of mutualism. Bees play a role to help the process of pollinating flowers on tomato plants, and because of the absence of their sting, farmers can cultivate these bees comfortably. Likewise, tomatoes will provide benefits for bees in fulfilling the bee colony nutrition.

This integrated agricultural system has become the new attraction to be applied in farmlands because, in addition to getting higher quality tomatoes, there are also byproducts of its integration system. In this case, bees produce honey and propolis.

Dr. M. Yusuf Abduh has applied this integration, M.T., together with ITB Agrotechnology and Bioproduct Technology Research Group (KKATB) team through cooperation with tomato farmers in Cigelang, owned by a farmer called Udin. The activity was carried out for two months so that the efficacy could be observed.

“As many as 1S stingless bee colonies are placed on one of the land areas of 210 per square meters and not using pesticides. For comparison, at the same time, another land with the same area without bee colonies is observed, which is also not using pesticides. Field observation process was done every two weeks to calculate the number and weight of the fruit," wrote Dr.M. Yusuf in the ITB Design Rubric in Media Indonesia published on November 2, 2021.

He explained that these observations showed that tomato gardens with stingless bees are much more productive than the gardens of the same area without bees. Even the results showed a garden with bees almost matched other larger areas and applied pesticides.

“Nutritionally, integrated tomatoes have water content and acid and solid content that is relatively the same as tomatoes in general. However, the integrated tomatoes have a thicker middle layer and higher lycopene and vitamin C content. Lycopene is beneficial for warding off radicals and preventing various risks of diseases such as heart disease and cancer. When consumed regularly, lycopene could increase endurance and brain health," he said.

The tomato harvest is packaged and then distributed to the academic community in the ITB School of Life Sciences and Technology (SITH). Some of the others were distributed to ITB students and Jemaah Masjid Al Jabbar in the form of tomato juice.

The success of this integration system is expected to attract the attention of farmers to utilize the cultivation of stingless bees in their gardens. The harvest obtained should improve the welfare of farmers because it has high quality and gets other bioproducts.
More information can be found at the following link.

Reporter: Lukman Ali (Teknik Mesin, 2020)
Translator: Aghisna Syifa R (Biologi, 2020)