IKA Faperta IPB University Visits Pelita Desa Nursery, Discusses Community Empowerment-Based Business
Students from the Faculty of Agriculture who are part of the Agripreneurship Program of the Alumni Family Association (IKA) of the Faculty of Agriculture (Faperta) at IPB University conducted a visit to Pelita Desa Nursery in the Ciseeng District, Bogor Regency on 10/12.
This visit was carried out as part of implementing the Agripreneurship Field Trip Program, a flagship program of IKA Faperta aimed at providing learning through training activities and cultivation assistance from upstream to downstream, thus developing a sustainable business unit.
Through this visit, students had the golden opportunity to discuss about business that is based on community empowerment, conducted by Pelita Desa Nursery. Muhammad Roby Alfiansah, a business driver at Pelita Desa, explained the history and how the business was initially established.
“Starting from the time of Covid-19, we saw the potential for the development of cultivating ornamental plants. Following that, we attempted to observe the market and reviewed how the demand in domestic and global markets is related to the commodity of ornamental plants. It appears that there is a high demand for this commodity in the global market, namely markets in Asia and Europe. We successfully secured a contract with our first buyer for a total of one million plants,” revealed Roby.
He continues, in order to maximize the demand of the market, Pelita Desa Nursery made an effort to engage local farmers in cultivating ornamental plants. Previously, partner farmers were provided with knowledge about export product standard operating procedures through socialization activities.
“In conducting a community empowerment-based business, some crucial steps that must be taken include aligning visions or goals, building good communication with partners, as well as adjusting the targeted objectives,” he explained.
“Based on that experience, at present, Pelita Desa has successfully expanded to five provinces, including West Java, Central Java, East Java, Lampung, and Banten, as an institution that puts focus on acclimatization and accelerating exports,” said Roby.
In addition to engaging in discussions, the students also had the opportunity to directly observe the location in which the ornamental plant breeding took place. Sherly, the coordinator of the Agripreneurship Program, stated that she found the activity very beneficial.
“This visit is very beneficial for us, we can learn directly from practitioners who are already experts, of course. Besides that, this visit also serves as a platform to widen our knowledge about exports in the field of ornamental plants, which is very interesting to learn,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of IKA Faperta, Octen Suhadi, expressed that they would continue to commit to providing support for the development of skills, especially for Faperta students, through various programs facilitated by IKA Faperta. (*/Lp) (IAAS/ZRT)
