FINANCIAL FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS OF RHIZOSPHERE RESTORATION FOR STEVIA ( Stevia Rebausidiana Bertoni M ) CULTIVATION AT SUGAR GROUP COMPANIES LAMPUNG Analisis

This research aims to understand the effect of growing media reparation (rhizosphere) on the production of stevia and the fi nancial feasibility of rhizosphere business. The necessary data were retrieved from fi eld research utilizing plot research method along with Complete Randomized Group Design (CRD) comprised of 15 x 2 executions and 3 replications. The plot size used was 2m x 0,6m (1,2m2). Research shows that rhizosphere restoration is able to increase the production of dry stevia leaves.Based on the result, the fi nancial feasibility analysis showing that NPV > 0 (nol), B/C ratio > 1, IRR 20%, and both BEP of unit and BEP of price are exceeded indicates that this business is feasible to run. However, it is sensitive on the change of cost and benefi t. This study suggests to improve stevia leaves production, higher than the current situation.

Kata kunci: rizosfi r, produksi, kelayakan fi nancial.In order to develop stevia farming there needs to be a restoration of the rhizosphere to increase stevia leaf production.This research aims to (i)

INTRODUCTION
analyse the impact of rhizosphere toward stevia leaf production and (ii) analyse fi nancial likelihood rhizosphere restoration.

This research was executed in Sugar Group
Companies Lampung, a company that is developing stevia farming to produce stevia leaf as a stevia sugar ingredient.

METHODS
Project can be defi ned as an entire activity which involves resource utilization in order to gain benefi t.Project can also be defi ned as an activity where a certain sum of money is spent in the present time with the hopes of acquiring a return in the future.
Restoring growth medium (rhizosphere) is considered a project as it involves spending a certain amount of capital and manpower to restore rhizosphere for stevia planting to produce stevia leaves in the future.

Experiment Design
Field To analyse financial likelihood of rhizosphere restoration (growth medium) for stevia cultivation at Sugar Group Companies Lampung, NPV, BC ratio, and IRR analysis were executed as follows.

Inter Rate of Return (IRR)
Rizosphere restoration is benefi cial if IRR>interest rate.IRR is the discount rate where NPV = zero, bellow is the IRR formula.Gittinger, 1979)

Characterization of Used Materials
The characterization of the used material for rhizosfer restoration that able to increase the natural soil from GPM is shown at the Table 2.
Blotong and manure were not wholly organic material, it was mixed with residual soil from the fi eld for blotong, and including some of surface soil for manure.Nonetheless both of these organic fertilizers were capable of contributing slow releasing nutrients such as N, P, K, Ca, and Mg since the C/N ratios still above 20.
The source of raw materials of both organic manures is residual arable plant, consists of 16 nutrients, so this organic fertilizer also contains meso and micro nutrients such as Cl, SO 4 , Mn, Cu, Zn, B, but these nutrients was not been analysed.

Harvest Results
The more organic fertilizer is applied, the result is heavier dried stevia, the highest value was at 4% organic fertilizer applied.
Same was also for amount of seed, 3 seeds/ planting hole produced heavier amounts of dried stevia leaves compared to seeds which were planted 1 seed/planting hole.
Nevertheless, rhizosphere investment is prone toward benefi t and cost changes (Table 7).A 5% cost increase along with

Conclusion
The effort to restore rhizosphere can increase dry stevia leaf production.Financial likelihood analysis of rhizosphere restoration shows that B/C ratio is greater than one, NPV is greater than zero, IRR is quite large at 20%, Unit BEP and Price BEP was exceeded, showing that rhizosphere restoration is fi nancially benefi cial.However, rhizosphere restoration efforts are still sensitive toward benefi t and cost changes.

Suggestions
Taking into account that financial likelihood of rhizosphere restoration efforts are still sensitive toward benefi t and cost changes, there needs to be an effort to an even higher production increase of dried stevia leaves.
Due to health concerns, global sugar consumption has decreased and is being replaced by low calorie sweeteners such as stevia sugar.Stevia sugar is a glycoside which does not contain calories and can decrease blood sugar therefore suitable for people dealing with obesity and diabetes.Stevia sugar interest has increase due to the rise of obese population and diabetes and society's awareness of health (Pusat Penelitian Bioteknologi dan Bioindustri Indonesia, 2008) According to Driadsiwi (2012) stevia farming has its advantages and disadvantages which needs to be acknowledged if this plant would be cultivated.The advantages of stevia farming include: (1) stevia farmer may easily receive new technology, (2) the quality and quantity of stevia leaf production is suffi cient, (3) cultivation is easy and low risk, (4) stevia leaf demand keeps rising, and (5) production facilities for stevia farming is easy to attain.The disadvantages include: (1) farmers have difficulty acquiring capital, (2) farmers limited managerial capacity, (3) sale prices still depend on agreed price as opposed to established price, (4) decreased output during rainy season, and (5) diffi culty to dry stevia leaves during rainy season.The research locations soil is the Ultisol type, developed from a raised swamp dating back from the Pleistocene age, and continued to develop by leaving sandy clay loam texture, acidic properties and low soil fertility.The root zone as a growing medium is quite shallow, contains a lot of zinc oxide, the lower layer has massive characteristics, soil water is relatively not connected with this root zone.
on year no-t, stevia production value in the form of dried leaf C t = costs on year no-t, including (i) cost of pre-producing plants (TBM): fi eld preparation, sowing, maintenance, (ii) cost of producing plants (TM): maintenance, harvest, drying.There are 2 types of project analysis which are fi nancial analysis and economic analysis.Financial analysis focuses on the results from the capital invested into the project.Financial analysis is important to review incentives for stakeholders whom support the project.Whereas, economic analysis is focused on total result or productivity or benefit for citizens or economy as a whole(Gittinger, 1979 and Squire and Van der Tak, 1975).This research analyses the project from the view point of the company or fi nancial likelihood analysis.Research involving horticulture farming financial likelihood analysis show many horticulture farming which is fi nancially likely to develop.Such as (i) ginger farm in Tajinan Village, Tajian District, Malang Regency (Sipriani, 2001), (ii) konyal passion fruit in Arosuka Village, GunungTalang District, Solok Regency, West Sumatera Province (Karmila, 2013), (iii) banana farm in Pesawaran Regency (Marga, 2016), dan (iv) local durian fruit nursery farming (Febriati, HidayahandAstuti.2017).Results from the research done by Yuniarsanty (2017) shows average cost of stevia farming is Rp 8.208.302/farm/year with a turnover of Rp 15.082.800/farm/year and revenue of Rp 6.874.497/farm/year.The average revenue of stevia and non-stevia farms are Rp 43.071.075/yearor stevia farming contributes to 15,96% of overall farming revenue.The factors that impact stevia farming revenue are fi eld area and pesticide price.On the contrary, seed prices, manure price, labour costs, and land ownership does not affect revenue.Yang et.al. (2013) states that a combination of inorganic and organic fertilizer can possibly increase stevia plant production compared to only administering inorganic or organic fertilizer, however organic fertilizer should be higher than inorganic fertilizer.Wibowo (2013) also states that (i) administering nitrogen fertilizer can increase biomass production in stevia plants, (ii) nitrogen properties increase assimilation process which results can be used for cell fi lling, (iii) carbon properties within plants infl uence sugar development within the plant itself through photosynthesis, (iv) administering 4mg dosages of nitrogen fertilizer per plant gives optimum results in terms of number of leaves and dry leaf weight, and (v) there is not yet a certain optimum nitrogen fertilizer dosage for growth and stevia plant results.
Soil as material for amelioration was taken from Central Java and Special Region of Yogyakarta.According to USDA Soil Taxonomy (2010) the Vertisol taken from Mulo -GunungKidul District, Alfi sol from Paliyan -GunungKidul, Andisol from Tawangmangu -Karanganyar, and Alfi sol from Karanganyat.The chemistry characteristics compared to local sources (GPM), organic contents were generally medium in quality, P contents were low level, and K, Ca, and Mg availabilities were generally medium to high level.In GPM soils the high levels of P and Ca were caused by intensive fertilizing which was executed upon which was especially taken from stevia cultivation.

Table 1 .
Experiment Design

Table 2 .
Organic Fertilizer and Soil Characterization

Table 3 .
Dry Weigh of 2 months old Stevia Plant Harvest (ton/ha)

Table 4 .
Stevia Leaf Production and Production Value

Table 5 .
Material and Labour Costs in Rhizosphere Restoration Effort

Table 6 .
B/C ratio, NPV, and IRR Rhizosphere Restoration Efforts on Initial Benefi t and Cost Value

Table 8 .
Unit BEP and Price BEP Stevia Plant Rhizosphere Restoration Effort a 5% benefi t drop causes this investment to be unprofi table.His change affects B/C to become less than one unless B/C is on Therefore, rhizosphere restoration efforts are profi table looking from the production and price point of view.

Table 7 .
B/C ratio, NPV, and IRR Rhizosphere Restoration Effort if Benefi t Value Falls 5% and Cost Value Rises 5%