IPB University New Students Need to Be Able to Develop Their Region’s Potentials

Indonesia is a country with abundant resources. Included inside are villages and regions possessing potential resources which can be utilized for social welfare.

However, the potentials haven’t been able to be utilized fully by the locals. Because of that, 4000 IPB University new students were advised to develop their respective region after they graduate.

Such advice was told during the Campus Introduction for New Students (MPKMB) IPB University, Monday (5/9) in Grha Widya Wisuda, Dramaga Campus, Bogor.

The advice was told by the CEO of iBEKA, Tri Mumpuni, who is also an alumnus of IPB University. He said that there are many local wisdoms and local richness in villages or rural regions which can be used to prosper the locals.

“With gotong royong (cooperation) spirit, we believe that we can change a village which was once barren and underdeveloped to be a village of which extensive agriculture fields and progressive people,” he said.

He thinks that to burn the gotong royong spirit of the people, a capable pioneer is needed. Such pioneer could be an alumnus of IPB University.

“Our duty is to build the people’s passion so that they can utilize and optimize the potentials and local richness of a certain area. Don’t let an intervention done by outsiders who don’t know anything about the potentials in that area,” he added.

He put electricity source as an example of a local richness. The electricity source can be in the form of water, wind, or sun ray, depends on each area. By developing the electricity in that area, other activities, such as agriculture and animal husbandry can be developed to improve national food security.

The CEO of Kelola Group, Ir. Mohammad Nadjikh, believes that to be a pioneer, we have to start small (kelas teri).

“Yes, ikan teri (anchovies) are small, but we can achieve success from small things. Anchovies are one example. Indonesia is the biggest producer of anchovies in the world. Even kelas teri can control the world. On the other side, to develop a region, we have to find something unique in that area. Indonesia is exceptionally rich, especially if we talk about agriculture and fisheries. The richness has to be utilized as well as possible so Indonesia can be the top five strongest economy in the world,” said Nadjikh. (Ard)