IPB Students Encourages Group of Women Farmers of Sukabumi to Develop Chili and Tomato Creative Economy

Starting from the experience of Community Service Program (KKN), five students of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) empowered Kelompok Wanita Tani or Group of Women Farmers (KWT) Sukaralang, Sukabumi, West Java, to develop creative economy. The creative economy that was being developed was chili and tomato processing.

Chili and tomato were chosen to be developed because both commodities were those that often suffered price fluctuation. Generally, when the price went down, chili and tomato would be left until it became rotten. Some chili and tomato farmers even threw away their harvests when the price was really low.

The group consisted of Audi Sobriyan, Chandi Tri Akbar, Elsa Marviani, Dwi Mega Setia Kasih, and Annisa Nurhidayah, encouraged KWT to process their harvest of chili and tomato to be processed product. Those products were chili sauce, chili sprinkle, and tomato kurma.

"Chili and tomato are very potential to be developed, especially when the price is very low and farmers cannot sell them," said Andi, the team leader.

The empowerment was done by doing a socialization, starting from the knowledge of processing, packaging, and marketing. The processing and packaging process was done along with the KWT women that grew chili and tomato, while marketing was helped by PKK women, BUMDes, and social media.

"Alhamdulillah, this program got a positive response from the village and even supported by the Village Head and his wife," Audi added.

The tangible proof of such positive response is the demand for a workshop about this KWT empowerment program by the Village Head and also a promotion of the program to the neighboring village. Currently, this program was selected by the district to be competing with other programs from other villages in Sukabumi.

Not only giving an education about the post-harvesting process, these five students also did an education about agriculture, starting from the cultivation, pest and diseases control, and good harvesting procedure. The students were under the supervision of Madam Juang Gema Kartika, SP, M.Si. This program was one of the Student Creativity Program in Community Service (PKM-M) 2018.

"We hope that with this program, the women, especially KWT, can be more independent and can utilize the existing agricultural land," he said.

The team also gave socialization regarding the registration of Food Industry Business Licence (PIRT) for their chili sprinkle and tomato kurma products so the products can be sold legally in the market.