These farmers in Karya Penggawa District, Indonesia, have been using bat dung harvested from the nearby Wisata Goa Matu cave as fertiliser.

The cave is home to millions of bats from hundreds of years, producing rife amounts of guano. The locals have been utilising this fertiliser for decades.

To extract the guano from the caves, the locals use makeshift equipment with torches tied around their heads. They use iron sieves to filter the fertiliser from the soil and other materials

Farmers in the Karya Penggawa District, West Coast Regency, Lampung are not worried about the limited subsidized fertilizer. They have been using bat dung from the Matu Cave tourist attraction as a substitute for plant nutrients for years. In addition to being a tourist destination, Matu Cave also has its own advantages for the local community.

Millions of bats living in this cave have produced guano or organic fertilizer for tens or even hundreds of years. The local community has been utilizing this organic fertilizer for decades and is believed to be very environmentally friendly. Although it has been taken for years, residents believe that there are still thousands of tons of bat dung at the bottom of the cave that will continue to increase.

To take organic fertilizer from bat dung, local residents only use makeshift equipment and are assisted by a flashlight tied to their heads. Residents carefully take the piles of soil at the bottom of the cave, then filter them using an iron sieve to separate the bat dung from the soil and other materials.

Farmers in the Karya Penggawa District consider this organic fertilizer from bat dung to be very good for all types of plants because it can flow the elements to the plant organs without being harmful. In addition, this organic fertilizer is one of the additional sources of income for the local community.

Because bat dung from Matu Cave cannot be sold, anyone who is able to take and carry the fertilizer by walking down the stairs that are always allowed by the manager. However, for people who cannot take the fertilizer directly from the cave, local residents are willing to help with a transport fee of 2,000 rupiah per kilogram. This transport fee has long been an additional source of income for residents who harvest to meet their daily needs.