“Orlin Farm” the Community Farming Business Developed by IPB Students
Asri Dwi Ambarwati, student of the Department of Agribusiness, Faculty of Economics and Management of Bogor Agricultural University (FEM IPB) has developed the livestock farming business since 2015. She has been running such business since she was in her 5th semester. Earlier than that, her dream to become entrepreneurs she has cultivated since she had been in elementary school (SD). Asri’ motivation to develop her livestock breeding farm, were her dream to become entrepreneurs, also encouraged by her concerns on the advancement of Livestock farming systems in Indonesia. "One hundred percent of Indonesian livestock farmers are traditional farmers in rural areas that are notably people with lower middle-class economies. So I hope that these community’ farms can increase their economy status," Asri said.
Asri and her team took a long way to go to develop their livestock breeding business. They put the name”Orlin Farm” for their business. Of course, to initiate their business Asri and Katrin Ola (student of the Department of Management of FEM IPB) collected a lot of information from the community around the campus of IPB. They enquired data from sellers in such villages, observing directly to the community farms in 17 (seventeen) villages around the campus. "There are of unique things here. A lot of people have large sheepfolds but only few livestock in it, and such problems are occurred in all the 17 villages," she explained.
Asri said in addition to capital problems in the supply of livestock products, the community also does not have adequate knowledge related to livestock management. Many of these breeders do not have a livestock production pattern and market network. Farmers only sell livestock to middlemen, because of the lack of transportation costs when selling to the livestock market. The I-SHEEP (Integrated Sheep) system which Asri developed under the supervision her lecturer, Dr. Burhannudin, will be utilized as the solution for problems of the livestock farmers.
I-SHEEP system was designed to provide solutions for problems in the livestock farming owned by farmers in the villages around the campus IPB. The I-SHEEP system integrates inventory systems designed by students to provide business capital; apply efficient research on livestock systems; problems of livestock farming in villages around IPB campus; and marketing systems (business to business and business to costumer).
To ensure personnel handling livestock perform their duties in a manner that complies with all current governing laws, regulations, and guidelines, Asri and the team have developed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). This SOP concerns the health of livestock, food supply, and others. Prior to that, farmers who are entrusted to take care of other livestock are well-selected, which include their honesty and their sincere hearts.
So far, Asri explained, the campus has given much support to her team. The concept of Orlin Farm has already been submitted for business competitions, including the Student Business Competition Program 2017 (KBMI); Entrepreneurial Student Program 2017; and Growing Program of Young Entrepreneurs of Agriculture by the Ministry of Agriculture of Indonesia 2017.
Capital received by Asri and her team from various entrepreneurial programs enabled them to run the current Orlin Farm business. Currently there are seven breeders which cooperate together with Orlin Farm and they are distributed in the Villages as follows: Tegal Waru, Cangkrang, Bojong Jengkol, and Cibanteng.
The barriers that Asri and team encounter mostly are effort to educate the breeders, and in selecting honest and trustful breeders. But for Asri, entrepreneur is her goal since she had been in high school. Success is everybody’s dream. But what is the key to success? " Making yourself as useful as possible to others. To be useful to others, you should always be aware of even the slightest clues of needs. It's not too late to achieve our goals, even if you know you haven't reached your 2017 goals, there's still time to achieve something towards your goal." she concluded. (Wied)
