IPB Initiated to Develop Agribusiness Center in Blora

As the follow-up action of cooperation / memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) with Blora District Government, and PT. GMM-Bulog, which was signed in November 2017, IPB through the Department of Agribusiness, of the Faculty of Economics and Management (FEM) has initiated to establish the Blora Agribusiness Development Center (PPAB). This was stated in the Opening Remarks of the Workshop on “Membangun Agribisnis Blora yang Inklusif dan Berkelanjutan = the Development of Inclusive and Sustainable Agribusiness of Blora",  in the Regent Office of Blora, on 26 February 2018.

The Workshop was attended by Blora Regent, H. Djoko Nugroho; the Regional Secretary and Heads of Agencies within the Regency of Blora; the Director of PT. GMM-Bulog, Dr. Rachmat Pambudy; Commissioner of PT. GMM Bulog, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Yunus Yosfiah; and the team of Department of Agribusiness consisted of Dr. Bayu Krisnamurthi, Dr. Dwi Rachmina (Chairman of the Department), Dr. Anna Fariyanti, Eva Yolynda A, MM, and Feryanto, M.Si.

The Regent of Blora welcomed the initiative of IPB to develop Agribusiness Center in his area. He said that Blora Regency has a variety of agribusiness commodities. They are potentially to be developed effort to empower the rural poor. For example, sustainable development and intensification potential of beef cattle production in Blora.

"Blora has the second largest population of SAPI (beef cattle) in Indonesia, but farmers keep livestock in traditional production systems. They do not know how to process further their livestock into value-added products to improve the welfare of farmers. In addition to cattle, food crops and fruits of Blora are also believed to have a big potential to be developed and improved for their competitiveness, "said the regent.

Therefore, the Regent said, the coaching program of IPB to be implemented due to the  agreed cooperation, is expected to assist  local governments to build and develop the  Competitive Agribusiness Center of Blora. Thus local farmers, especially those who live adjacent to forest lands will be beneficial, and in the long run the Center will be capable to reduce the poverty line of rural communities in Blora.

In the meantime, Dr. Bayu Krisnamurthi, said that PPAB is effort of IPB to assist  local governments to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). In the future, PPAB will be functioning to provide synergy and coordination on agribusiness development programs, empowering farmers and micro, small and medium enterprises (UMKM), and facilitating access to services and cooperation with stakeholders.

"To formulize PPAB into a running business in the near future, annual work-program for 2018 and 2019 will be planned soon. As follow-up action for  short-term program, IPB will despatch its students to implement their Kuliah Kerja Nyata Tematik (KKN-T Thematic Field Works) in  Blora Regency," Dr. Bayu.

Chairman of the Department of Agribusiness of the FEM IPB, Dr. Dwi Rachmina, conveyed, PPAB is implementation of universities to assist the community under the  concept of University Tridharma, the community development, in this case improving the quality of life farmers. IPB will assign the Department of Agribusiness to give full support for the development of programs to be run through PPAB by involving other stakeholders, one of which will be PT. GMM Bulog.

Similar statement was also stated by the Director of PT. GMM-Bulog, Dr. Rachmat Pambudy, who confirmed that he would support this cooperation program. According to him, PT. GMM-Bulog as owner of  the Sugar Mills company located in Blora, will assist the implementation of the program. The  company will be doing synergy between sugarcane – cattle farming proposed by IPB.

So far, a significant amount of manure of the livestock have not been utilized properly, in the future those livestock manure will be converted into valuable fertilizers to be used by farmers Blora, especially sugar cane farmers. When properly used, fertilizers, livestock manure, and cover crops are important assets in productive agricultural systems. Meanwhile, the farmers will get forage from the harvested cane, other than the bagasse produced by PT. GMM – Bulog. (Wied)