In Sliyeg villages, the farmers group got good result on vegetables especially on sponge gourd. The breeding line is in F7 which is a cross of local varieties called Sliyeg x Kalensari. The line is popular in Sliyeg, Majasi and Longok community. As of the last season, the stable variety is planted in 40 to 60 hectare, and the number of farmers that planted it was 150 to 175 farmers.

Based on above problem we wrote this case study, in fact for about 4 years participating Farmer Field School on Local Vegetables the farmers breeder of the Sliyeg village have been benefiting the rest of the Sliyeg community who plant the sponge gourd. The sponge gourd of Sliyeg (emes sliyeg) which was the result of crossing has been known and marketed in the local market of Jatibarang and Bekasi Main Market. The distributed sponge gourd of Sliyeg in the both market amount of 10 tons a day.

This case study conducted by the way of direct interview toward farmer breeder and the member of the farmer group, sponge gourd of Sliyeg’ seeds planter, and direct observation.

Arum Sari Farmer Group of the Sliyeg Village, Sliyeg Subdistrict, Indramayu District was formed in the 20 December 1998 with 80 members. At the beginning, the activities of the group was interfacilitated by Indramayu Office of Farming and focused on mango, while sponge gourd and squash, string bean are subsidiary vegetables planted around the mango.

By 2004, the group join PEDIGREA program which started on participating on FFS on Local vegetables (January – May 2004). Arum Sari Farmer Group’s member who participate FFS on local vegetables amount of 25 people in which 8 of them are female and 17 male.

This FFS specifically developing local vegetables such as sponge gourd and squash, but sponge gourd breeding is the most intensified activities as to the majority of the Sliyeg community plant sponge gourd of Sliyeg as their livelihood. The Sliyeg community itself has three main livelihoods such as annual come from mango, seasonal come from rice (on rainy season) and daily come from local vegetable such sponge gourd. Therefore sponge gourd of Sliyeg play important role in Sliyeg community as persistent income.

According to Mr. Karyana and the member of the group, before they join the FFS and learn much from FFS, their only knowledge on sponge gourd just limited to plant, to raise and sell without any knowledge to understand plant, cultivate and other potent of sponge gourd. According to them, in FFS they learn about: analysis of vegetables activities, year to year analysis, parental analysis of vegetables development, framework of vegetable breeding, establishing breeding objectives, setting – up of field potentials / studies, discussion on cell, gene and characteristics, plant growth stages, plant morphology, breeding techniques, recording and documentation and taste test of vegetable fruit

Mrs. Nardem and the member of group stated that by the provided material above they could understand; identify the problems and the possibility of development of the sponge gourd of Sliyeg.

From the observation that was conducted by FFS participants found that the sponge gourd of Sliyeg has character such as: length about 40 – 50 cm, has sponge kind, rough texture, high productivity, drought resistant, with this kind of length is breakable when packed and therefore made the price fall down.

Thus to enhance the sponge gourd quality, farmers breeder and their member compose some breeding objectives such as:

Middle length about 20 – 25 cm, by this length the sponge gourd is not easily breakable when packed, have soft texture, high productivity, and somewhat sweet,

Based on those breeding objectives, Arum Sari Farmer Group identify another sponge gourd which posses shorter length (10 – 15 cm), soft texture, and sweet taste. By those identification, they found that sponge gourd of Kalensari has those character. Arum Sari Farmer Group then decides to have cooperation with farmer groups of Kalensari to provide the source of crossing.

The crossing process of sponge gourd of Sliyeg x sponge gourd of Kalensari was conducted by April 2004. From the F1 indicated no significance changes with the origin, but at the F2 there are some kind of sponge gourd as the criteria of the breeding objectives.

From F1 seeds, we conduct enhancement study to select and found sponge gourd based on breeding objectives criteria. This enhancement study conducted twice a year and reach F5 since 2006. Furthermore the plant has shown good result and much farmer in Sliyeg plant it.

Since 2006 Arumsari Farmer Group has been known as farmers breeder and many farmer come to them to exchange their sponge gourd seeds. Since 2008 has reach F7 as the enhancement study is conducted every season. And it could be said that sponge gourd quality enhancement has been successful. In Sliyeg villages, the farmers group got good result on vegetables especially on Sponge gourd. The breeding line is in F7 which is a cross of local varieties called Sliyeg x Kalensari. The line is popular in Sliyeg, Majasi and Longok community. As of the last season, the stable variety is planted in 40 to 60 hectare, and the number of farmers that planted it was 150 to 175 farmers.

Every season, to build a well communication among community, Arumsari Farmer Group conducts a members meeting. The farmers breeder’s member gave counseling toward raising seeds which not lost its character. By enhancement study, the other member conduct refinery to produce stable seeds and finally the seeds distributed among farmer.

Finally the character of the new sponge gourd of Sliyeg reaches medium length 15 – 20 Cm and not easily breakable when packed, somewhat sweet taste, and has good production 4:2 (four times harvest frequency of crossing sponge gourd and twice harvest of sponge gourd)

Mr Edy and Mr Taryana as farmers breeder state that enhancement study is very important in order to conduct selection and purification. In fact sponge gourd is a kind of flower open pollinated, therefore could crossed each season.

The next challenge is related to sponge gourd plantation in which most of 80 % of sponge gourd farmer of Sliyeg village has been planting it to neighborhood village such as Longok and Majasi. They plant seeds from Arumsari Farmer Group’s crossing. Unfortunately it price is stagnant though sponge gourd reach its famous in Jatibarang market, Cibitung Bekasi Main Market and Bandung Main Market.

As vast usage of Arumsari Farmer Group’s seeds and the development of the program, Arumsari Farmer Group develop: First program is developing community seed bank which maintained by the youth and women. And their motivation are increased due to PEDIGREA short program by Ms. Arma (September 2008). The group has its own program but supporting farmers breeding. The second program is pioneering the marketing of sponge gourd and other vegetables and this activities has reach the level of ToT for marketing development and FFS on local vegetables marketing.