Students of IPB Took Advantage of Onion Skin for Crafts

Who was not familiar with the onion and the garlic? The spice which was easily recognizable from its color became the mandatory flavor in almost all cuisines in Indonesia. If you wanted to use the onion, we peeled it first. This peeling left an abundant onion skin waste. Not infrequently, we met its piling up on the roadside around the market.

Inspired from the pile of the onion skins in the market which caused a bad smell, a group of students of the Faculty of Fisheries, Bogor Agricultural University (FPIK-IPB), took the initiative to use it as the raw material for a beautiful craft which could increase the added value. The students who were the members of the Student Creativity Program in Community Service (PKM-M) of IPB  were Intan Adriana, Siti Utami Pratiwi, Tri Laela Wulandari, Seif Rahmatika J, and Adi Nugroho. They held the onion skin craft training for the residents of Babakan Village, Dramaga Sub-district, Bogor District, West Java. “We choose Babakan Village, because the majority of the people living there work as the farmers, the traders, the factory employees, and the unemployed. Other than that, we specifically choose to train the housewives, because most of them have a lot of free time, and the majority do not work,” concluded Tri Laela. The training program was conducted once a week which contained the making of the onion skin craft in the form of the tissue place and the flower. “Currently, we only train the making of the flowers and the tissue places, but in the future we hope the products will be increased. This onion skin has the uniqueness that can be explored,” she added.The results of the products labeled ‘Kerlikuba’ (Onion Skin Crafts) produced would be marketed through the social media, the online store, and also it was planned to establish the partnerships with the specialty stores of Bogor souvenirs. “We hope in the future that this product can be a typical handmade product of Bogor City,” said Tri Laela. (GG/ris)