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JOURNAL OF DEGRADED AND MINING LANDS MANAGEMENT
ISSN: 2339-076X (p); 2502-2458 (e), Volume 7, Number 4 (July 2020): 2363-2371
DOI:10.15243/jdmlm.2020.074.2363
www.jdmlm.ub.ac.id 2363
Research Article
Effectiveness of the combination of biopellet, biochar, chicken manure
and fish waste to the improvement of chemical properties of sandy soil
and soybean plant growth
Sugeng Winarso*, Bambang Hermiyanto, Sukron Romadhona, Martinus H.
Pandutama, Tri Candra Setiawati, Indasah
Soil Departement, Agricultural Faculty, The University of Jember, Jln. Kalimantan 37 Kampus Tegal Boto Jember,
68121, Indonesia
*corresponding Email: winarsosugeng@unej.ac.id
Received 8 May 2020, Accepted 13 June 2020
Abstract: Most of the activities of the use of organic fertilizers and natural additions of organic matter
in agricultural intensification fields in Indonesia have not been able to compensate for the rate of decline
in soil organic matter by the decomposition process. Biochar has a high C level and has the mean
residence time in a long period in the soils. It has been proven that biochar applications may increase soil
Carbon but have not been able to increase plant production. Therefore, the use of biochar combined with
organic waste rich in nutrients is essential to develop. The purpose of this study was to determine the
effectiveness of some biochar compositions with sugar cane, chicken manure, fish waste in the form of
biopellet fertilizer on improving the chemical properties of sandy soils and the vegetative growth of
soybean plants. This study used a completely randomized block design with two factors. The first factor
(B) was the composition of biochar consisting of three levels, namely: 70% biochar, 15% chicken
manure, 15% fish waste (B1), 50 % biochar, 25% chicken manure, 25% fish waste (B2), and 20%
biochar, 40% chicken manure, 40% fish waste (B3). The second factor (D) was the dose of biopellet
fertilizers consisting of four levels, namely: control (D0), 2.5 t/ha (D1), 5 t/ha (D2), and 10 t/ha (D3). The
results showed that the addition of biopellet fertilizer effectively improved soil chemical properties (pH,
C-organic, and CEC) and the availability of N, P, and K of the sandy soil. The effectiveness of increasing
the soil total-N varied from 32.42 to 75.79%, P-available varied from 17.46 to 40.69%, and exchangeable
K ranged from 8.7 to 25.67%. Improvement of soil chemical properties and the availability of N, P, and K
by biopellet fertilizer application increased plant growth but reduced the weight of root nodules.
Keywords: biochar, effectiveness, sandy soil, soil chemistry, soybean
To cite this article: Winarso, S., Hermiyanto, B., Romadhona, S., Pandutama, M.H., Setiawati, T.C. and Indasah.
2020. Effectiveness of the combination of biopellet, biochar, chicken manure and fish waste to the improvement of
chemical properties of sandy soil and soybean plant growth. J. Degrade. Min. Land Manage. 7(4): 2363-2371, DOI:
10.15243/jdmlm. 2020.074.2363.
Introduction
Many research results showed that in the humid
tropics, including Indonesia, agricultural lands
had experienced a continuous decline in the level
of organic matter (Gmach et al., 2018; Winarso et
al., 2011). Organic matter is one of the keys
controlling the ideal soil physical, chemical, and
biological properties to support plant growth and
sustainability. Most of the activities of using
organic fertilizers and natural additions in
agricultural intensification fields in Indonesia
have not been able to compensate for the rate of
decline in organic matter by the decomposition
process. Factors that influence the rate of
decomposition of soil organic matter were mainly
temperature (Ryan et al., 2011), microorganisms
(Nicolás et al., 2019), changes in land
management (Lei et al., 2019), the composition of
Effectiveness of the combination of biopellet to the improvement of chemical properties of sandy soil
Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management 2364
organic matter (Gmach et al., 2018) and others.
The use of biochar which has high C level and
Means Residence Time (MRT) in a long time had
been shown to increase long-term C (Bruun and
El-zehery, 2012; Mensah and Frimpong, 2018).
However, they were deficient in nutrients
(Ilmiawan et al., 2018) so as not to be able to
increase crop production. Biochar enriched with
NPK nutrients could improve the properties of
acid soils and the availability of these nutrients
(Winarso et al., 2019). Organic fertilizer is
believed to be urgently needed at this time and for
the foreseeable future in agricultural inputs
because it is one of the effective alternatives to
reduce the role of chemical or synthetic fertilizers
in agricultural activities. According to Alemi et al.
(2010), the use of organic fertilizer in the form of
pellets could release nutrients slowly and
continuously to support the uptake of wheat plants
at different growth stages.
Organic fertilizer in the form of pellets had
several advantages over ordinary organic
fertilizers, in addition to the slow release of
nutrients, it also had a high percentage of
durability (91.73%) or low damage (8.27%) when
processed. Therefore the use of biochar combined
with organic waste rich in nutrients and packaged
in pellets was essential to be developed as a
source of organic fertilizer. The purpose of this
study was to determine the effectiveness of some
biochar compositions of sugar cane, chicken
manure, and fish waste in the form of organic
biopellet fertilizers on improving the chemical
properties of sandy soils vegetative growth of
soybean plants.
Materials and Methods
Production of biopellet fertilizers and soil
sampling
The study was conducted at a Greenhouse and
Soil Fertility Laboratory of the Faculty of
Agriculture, the University of Jember in 2019.
Biochar was made using the Kon Tiki method
with the raw materials derived from corn waste in
the form of corncobs. Fish waste and chicken
manure used for nutrient enrichment were dried
and ground, which was then mixed with biochar
to become a homogeneous mixture. The
percentage of each ingredient adjusted according
to treatments. The making of biopellet fertilizer
done using a mixture of these materials to form
pellets using a concentration of 4% molasses
adhesive. The process of moulding into biopellet
fertilizer was made using a meat grinder with a
diameter of 5 mm. Biopellet fertilizers that had
been formulated entirely were then dried in the
oven for 4 hours at a temperature of 60-70°C
(Lamanda et al., 2015). The chemical properties
of each biopellet fertilizer based on different
biochar levels presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Chemical properties of biopellet fertilizers.
Chemical Properties Unit Biochar Concentration (%) Explanation*)
70 50 20
pH
-
7
.
22
7
.
41
7
.
12
C
omply to standard
(4
-
9)
Total N % 1.65 3.08 3.85 Comply to standard
(N+P
2
O
5
+K
2
O
>2)
Available P ppm 0.5 1.24 1.51 Comply to standard
(N+P
2
O
5
+K
2
O
>2)
Exchangeable K % 0.75 0.9 0.83 Comply to standard
(N+P
2
O
5
+K
2
O
>2)
C
ation
E
x
chan
ge
C
apacity
c
mol
/
kg
33
.
2
30
.
8
19
.
6
Organic
C
%
20
.
8
24
.
57
29
.
4
Comp
ly to st
andard
(15)
*) Based on Decree of the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia No. 261/KPTS/SR.310/M/4/2019
concerning Minimum Technical Requirements of Fertilizers Organic, Biofertilizers, and Soil Enhancers, Minister of
Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia.
Based on the results of the test, all biopellet
fertilizers met the technical requirements of
organic fertilizer according to the Decree of the
Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of
Indonesia No. 261/ KPTS/SR.310/M/4/2019
about Minimum Technical Requirements of
Fertilizers Organic, Biofertilizers, and Soil
Amendments, the Ministry of Agriculture of the
Republic of Indonesia. The soil used as planting
media and biopellet fertilizer test was a sandy soil
(Regosol) which has low cation exchange
capacity (CEC), total-N, and organic-C. The soil,
however, has a very high exchangeable K
(available) (Table 2).
Effectiveness of the combination of biopellet to the improvement of chemical properties of sandy soil
Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management 2365
Table 2. Chemical properties of the soil used as planting media and biopellet fertilizer test.
Variable Soil Chemical Properties Unit Value Status (*)
pH
-
7
.
63
Somewha
t Alkaline
T
ot
al
-
N
(Kjelda
hl)
%
0
.
13
Low
Avail
a
ble
P
(Olsen)
ppm
0
.
19
Very Low
K
ex
ch (
NH
4
-
As, pH
7,
AAS)
%
1
.
01
Very High
CEC (
NH
4
-
As, pH 7
)
c
mol
/
kg
9
.
6
Low
Organic
-
C
(Kurmis)
%
1
.
17
Low
*) Based on Soil Analysis Results Assessment Criteria, Soil Research Institute (2005).
Implementation of the experiment
This study used a completely randomized block
design with two factors. The first factor (B) was
the composition of biopellet materials consisting
of 3 levels, namely: 1) 70% biochar, 15% chicken
manure, 15% fish waste (B1), 2) 50% biochar,
25% chicken manure, 25% fish waste ( B2), and
3) 20% biochar, 40% chicken manure, 40% fish
waste. The second factor was the dose of biopellet
fertilizers (D) consisting of 4 levels, namely: 1)
control or without the addition of biopellet (D0),
2) 2.5 t/ha (D1), 3) 5 t/ha (D2), and 4) 10 t/ha
(D3). Plant media, 8 kg of sandy soil that passed
through a 2 mm sieve, was put into a polybag and
treated with biopellet fertilizer according to the
above treatments. The planting media were
supplied with water to the field capacity condition
and incubated for four weeks. Plants parameter
observed when the plant entered the final
vegetative phase on the 40th day after planting.
The preparation of the samples was carried out by
carefully removing the plants and their roots from
the polybag to avoid the damage of roots and root
nodules. Observation variables for testing the
effectiveness of biopellet fertilizers on improving
soil chemical properties and soybean plant growth
were C-organic, N-total, P-available, K-available,
Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) (Soil Research
Institute, 2005), plant height, number of leaves,
root length, fresh weight and dry weight of plants,
and number and weight of nodules. Effectiveness
was measured based on the difference in changes
in the value of the variables treated to control,
divided by the values of the variables treated.
Results and Discussion
Effectiveness of Regosol soil improvement and
N, P, and K nutrients availability
The treatment of biopellet fertilizers (a
combination of biochar, fish waste, and chicken
manure) in sandy soil significantly increased soil
organic-C content. In general, the increase of
organic-C content followed the dose of biopellet
fertilizer, except for the application of 10 t/ha,
which seemed to be decreasing (Figure 1).
Differences in composition or percentage of
biochar, fish waste, and chicken manure did not
give a significant difference. The effectiveness of
increasing soil organic-C was very high. The
addition of 2.5 t/ha and 5 t/ha increased soil
organic-C content by 33.4% 41.1%, respectively.
However, the increase of soil organic C content
due to the application of 10 t/ha was less than that
of the addition of 5 t/ha, and the increase was only
slightly above the addition of 2.5 t/ha of 35.9%.
Addition of biopellet fertilizer up to 10 t/ha was
thought to enhance the decomposition of soil
organic matter so that more C was lost from the
soil through CO2 emissions. In addition, the
combination of the three ingredients in an amount
of 10 t/ha indicated an ideal combination for
decomposition. Ge et al. (2013) reported that there
was a close relationship between soil nutrients,
the quality of organic matter media, and
decomposition. The supply of nutrients from the
soil or mixtures of organic matter was an
important factor controlling the rate of
decomposition, because essential nutrients in the
soil or litter affect the community and decomposer
activities in the soil. This also corresponds to an
important variable in the decomposition of
organic matter, namely the C/N ratio. Based on
the calculation of the C/N ratio of biopellet
fertilizer with biochar 70% that was 12.61 (ideal
according to the soil), there was no concern about
the impact of the immobilization process; while
50% and 20% mixtures had lower C/N ratios of
7.98 and 7.64, respectively than that of 70%
mixture. Based on many research results showed
that the lower the C/N ratio of organic matter
(organic fertilizer), the higher or faster the
decomposition processes (Gezahegn et al., 2016).
This decomposition of biopellet fertilizer will
further affect the decrease in pH because it
releases organic acids (Winarso et al., 2011) and
will open new sorption sites thereby increasing
soil CEC (Berkeley, 2009). Based on the data
obtained from this research, the soil organic-C
content had a very significant negative correlation
with soil pH (r= -0.65**) which means that the
Effectiveness of the combination of biopellet to the improvement of chemical properties of sandy soil
Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management 2366
increase of the level of soil organic-C would be
followed by the decrease in soil pH value.
Regarding biochar decomposition, Wang et al.
(2015) reported that the biochar decomposition
stage begins with increasing logarithmically and
decreasing with time. In addition, the mean
residence time of C biochar based on unstable and
recalcitrant pools is estimated to be around 108
days and 556 years with pool sizes of 3% and
97%, respectively. The addition of biopellet
fertilizer up to 10 t/ha was thought to enhance the
decomposition of soil organic matter so that more
C was lost from the soil through CO2 emissions.
Besides, the combination of the three ingredients
in an amount of 10 t/ha indicated an ideal
combination for decomposition.
Figure 1. The average increase in soil organic-C content by the treatment of biopellet fertilizers with some
biochar levels.
Ge et al. (2013) reported a close relationship
between soil nutrients, the quality of organic
matter media, and decomposition. The supply of
nutrients from the soil or mixtures of organic
matter was an important factor controlling the
decomposition rate because essential nutrients in
the soil or litter affect the community and
decomposer activities in the soil. This also
corresponds to an important variable in the
decomposition of organic matter, namely the C/N
ratio. Based on the calculation of the C/N ratio of
biopellet fertilizer with biochar 70% that was
12.61 (ideal according to the soil), there was no
concern about the impact of the immobilization
process; while 50% and 20% mixtures had lower
C/N ratios of 7.98 and 7.64, respectively than that
of 70% mixture. Based on many research results
showed that the lower the C/N ratio of organic
matter (organic fertilizer), the higher or faster the
decomposition processes (Sun et al., 2019;
Gezahegn et al., 2016). This decomposition of
biopellet fertilizer will further affect the decrease
in pH because it releases organic acids
(Winarso et al., 2011) and will open new sorption
sites, thereby increasing soil CEC (Berkeley,
2009). Based on the data obtained from this
research, the soil organic-C content had a very
significant negative correlation with soil pH (r= -
0.65**), which means that the increase of the
level of soil organic-C would be followed by the
decrease in soil pH. Regarding biochar
decomposition, Wang et al. (2015) reported that
the biochar decomposition stage begins with
increasing logarithmically and decreasing with
time. Also, the mean residence time of C biochar
based on unstable and recalcitrant pools is
estimated to be around 108 days and 556 years
with pool sizes of 3% and 97%, respectively.
Soil pH
The treatment of biopellet fertilizer containing
biochar, shrimp waste, and chicken manure in
sandy soil with an initial pH of 7.63 (slightly
alkaline) could reduce the soil pH to near ideal
values for most plant growth (pH of slightly
below 7). The magnitude of decrease in pH of the
treated soils (a combination of biochar, shrimp
waste, and chicken manure) varied between 1.99
to 3.43%. The most considerable decrease or
could be said to be the most effective in lowering
the pH which was close to ideal was a
combination of 70 % biochar + 15% chicken
manure + 15% fish waste with a total dose of 10
t/ha. The treatment of biopellet fertilizer had not
achieved the ideal soil pH, which was around 6-7
so that the treatment of this material needs to
continue in the next planting season. The
application period and duration were important to
Effectiveness of the combination of biopellet to the improvement of chemical properties of sandy soil
Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management 2367
know so that they could maintain their ideal
conditions. The ideal soil acidity would affect the
availability of nutrients needed by plants,
especially the P and B nutrients which their
solubility directly controlled by soil pH. The
decrease in soil pH based on increasing the dose
was quadratic, with a very high R2 value ranging
from 0.89 to 0.99 (Figure 2). These decreases in
pH indicated the decomposition of the added
materials (fish waste and chicken manure) into the
biopellet compound released organic acids that
could increase the amount of H+ ions which in
turn, could reduce soil pH (Iyamuremye et al.,
1996; Winarso and Taufiq, 2011; Sari, 2017). The
treatment of biopellet fertilizers containing
biochar, shrimp waste, and chicken manure could
decrease in soil pH by increasing the dosage or
concentration of biochar. The application of the
bio-pellet 10 t/ha with 70% biochar concentration
effective 3.43% reduces soil pH, while the dose of
application up to 2.5 t/ha would reduce the
effectiveness up to 3.09%. The lower
concentration of biochar (20%) would reduce the
effectiveness of reducing soil pH by only 2.48%.
Figure 2. The average decrease in soil pH by the treatment of biopellet fertilizers with some biochar
levels.
Soil cation exchange capacity
The combination or interaction of the composition
and dosage of bio-pellet fertilizer on the soil's
ability to exchange cations in the soil was not
statistically significant. However, the single factor
of biopellet fertilizer dosage significantly
increased the value of soil cation exchange
capacity (CEC). A statistical test on a single
treatment factor of the dose of biopellet fertilizer
could significantly increase the CEC of sandy soil
from 9.6 cmol/kg to 18.27 cmol/kg (application of
5 t biopellet fertilizer/ha) (Figure 3). The
application of 2.5 t biopellet fertilizer/ha and a
high biochar concentration of 70% further
increased the value of soil CEC compared to that
applied with 50 and 20%. Combination treatment
of 10 t/ha dosage and 50% biochar concentration
increase the highest in soil CEC (34.66%). Similar
to soil pH variable, reducing the dose of biopellet
fertilizer given and lowering biochar levels would
reduce the effectiveness of increasing soil CEC
values. Decreased effectiveness by decreasing the
dose of biopellet fertilizer up to 2.5 t/ha (biochar
concentration of 50%) reached up to 18.86%
while decreasing by biochar concentration to 20%
(biopellet dose of 10 t/ha) reached up to 28.35%.
Based on many works of literature, the soil CEC
value is influenced by the texture and organic-C
content of the soil (Mishra et al., 2019). The
dominant soil particle size that influences CEC's
value is clay fraction, followed by silt and sand
fractions. As the soil used in this study is sandy,
the soil texture did not contribute significantly to
the soil CEC value. Organic matter greatly
influenced The CEC of this soil (Siregar et al.,
2017), and its value can vary depending on pH or
is said to be a variable charge. The relationships
between CEC with soil pH and C-organic were
categorized strong, which were represented by the
equation of y = 6.87x + 6.5 (for CEC vs C-org)
and y = 18.24x + 145.71 (for CEC vs pH) with
correlation coefficients (r) of -0.72** (n = 36) and
0.69** (n = 36), respectively (Figure 4).
Effectiveness of the combination of biopellet to the improvement of chemical properties of sandy soil
Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management 2368
Figure 3. The average increase in soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) by the treatment of biopellet
fertilizers with some biochar levels.
Figure 4. Relationships between CEC with pH and C-organic of sandy soil treated with biopellet fertilizer
and biochar.
Decomposition will increase the charge
(carboxylate, phenolics, etc.), which are generally
variable depending on pH. In conditions of
relatively high pH, the charge will be more
negative so that it will create new sorption sites or
increase the soil CEC's value. In sandy soils, CEC
is determined by organic matter content, i.e., the
higher the organic matter content, the higher the
CEC contribution. The contribution of CEC from
organic matter varies depending on the pH. In a
low pH, the soil organic matter charge will be
positive, thereby reducing CEC. Conversely, in a
high pH, the soil organic matter charge will be
negative, or CEC will increase.
Availability of soil N, P, and K nutrients
The application of biopellet fertilizer increased the
availability of both N, P, and K (Table 3). The
effectiveness of increasing nutrient availability in
the soil was highest for the N (represented by soil
total-N), ranging from 32.42 to 75.79%, followed
by available P, which ranged from 17.46 to 40.69,
and K-exch which ranged from 8.7 to 25.67%.
Those values that are often said to be the
efficiency of fertilization were categorized high.
The creation of the combined materials into
biopellets may cause the high value of the
effectiveness or efficiency of fertilization, which
was also included as organic fertilizer. It also
proved that biochar could increase the
effectiveness of fertilization in the soil, especially
in sandy soils, which generally have very low
fertilization efficiency. Data presented in Table 3
show that the highest efficiency of fertilization
was at the addition of 2.5 t biopellet/ha, be
followed by 5 t biopellet/ha. The addition of
biopellets up to 10 t/ha began to have symptoms
sloping. This phenomenon might be following the
Effectiveness of the combination of biopellet to the improvement of chemical properties of sandy soil
Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management 2369
law of diminishing return fertilization. The low
dose of biopellet (2.5 t/ha) and 50% biochar
concentration appeared to have the highest
increase in effectiveness compared to the others.
If the dose of biopellet increased to 5 t/ha, the
effectiveness also increased, even the increase due
to the application of 10 t biopellet/ha tended to be
similar to that of 5 t/ha.
Table 3. Percentage of increase in the availability of N, P, and K in the soil or the effectiveness of the
combination of biochar and biopellet fertilizer.
Biochar Application of Biopellet Fertilizer (t/ha)
(%) 2.5 5 10
N P K N P K N P K
..
....
.....
......
............................................%.
..
...............................................................
70
52
.
73
24
.
91
13
.
19
48
.
0
0
17
.
46
12
.
22
50
.
94
21
.
80
14
.
59
50
58
.
18
22
.
1
2
13
.
02
75
.
79
23
.
58
8
.
70
69
.
74
40
.
69
1
4
.
53
20
32
.
43
20
.
49
25
.
67
5
4
.
55
2
3
.
15
20
.
57
65
.
69
19
.
63
14
.
72
Effectiveness of increasing soybean plant growth
Fresh and dry weight of plants
Previously it had been explained that in general,
the application of biopellet fertilizer containing
biochar, shrimp waste, and chicken manure with
various compositions could effectively improve
the chemical properties of sandy soil.
Improvement of soil properties (Table 3) also
increased the effectiveness of soybean growth, as
presented in Figure 5. The addition of biopellet
fertilizer up to 10 t/ha increased fresh weight and
dry weight of soybean plants, especially for the
composition of 50% biochar, 25% shrimp waste,
and 25% chicken manure. It concluded that the
composition was the most effective treatment for
improving the chemical properties of sandy soil
and soybean plant growth. There was a pattern of
the response of the growth of soybean plants to
low doses of biopellet fertilizer (2.5 t/ha).
Increasing the addition of biochar would increase
wet weight. This pattern occurred if the addition
of the dose to 5 t/ha increased, which showed a
tendency to decline if the percentage biochar
increased, even there was a sharp decline in the
dose of 10 t/ha.
Number and fresh weight of root nodules
The growth of plant root nodules did not follow
the increase in plant growth shown by both fresh
and dry weight. Figure 6 shows that the treatment
of adding 10 t biopellet fertilizer/ha to sandy soil
as a growing medium for soybean plants reduced
the fresh weight of root nodules. The sharpest
reduction occurred in the combination of 20%
biochar and fish waste and chicken manure 40%
each. This combination was the most valuable
biopellet fertilizer, which had the highest levels of
N and P, innate from fish waste and chicken
manure (Table 1).
Figure 5. The average increase in wet weight (left) and dry weight (right) soybean plants (5 weeks after
planting) by the treatment of biopellet fertilizer with some biochar levels.
Effectiveness of the combination of biopellet to the improvement of chemical properties of sandy soil
Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management 2370
Figure 6. The average reduction in the number of soybean root nodules by biopellet fertilizer treatment
with some biochar levels.
Based on the statistical analysis, the relationship
between the fresh weight of root nodules and
plant growth was very weak, but strong to very
strong when associated with soil chemical
properties (pH, r = 0.5 and organic-C, r = -0.62**
) and availability of N and P (-0.76** and -0.56*,
respectively). The relationship of fresh weight of
root nodules with the availability of nutrients had
a negative correlation; namely, the higher
availability of nutrients reduced the fresh weight
of root nodules. Conversely, the relationship of
soil pH by the addition of biopellet fertilizer was
proportional to or positively correlated to the fresh
weight of root nodules.
Conclusion
Biopellet fertilizer with several biochar
compositions, fish waste, and chicken manure had
proven to be effective in improving soil chemical
properties (pH, C-organic, and CEC) and the
availability of N, P, and K of sandy soil. The
effectiveness of increasing the availability of
nutrients in the soil was highest in the soil total N
soil that ranged from 32.42 to 75.79%, followed
by available-P and exchangeable K. The
improvement of soil chemical properties and the
availability of N, P, and K improved soybean
growth.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Riche Agustina and Anisa Haryanti
on their help in conducting this research. This paper is
part of applied research result funded by Directorate of
Research and Community Service. Indonesian Ministry
of Research and Technology and High Education.
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