UNS — A Team of Student Community Service Program (KKN) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, the team 343, initiates an innovation to process rice bran to have higher economic value. Regular rice bran with a low economic value was transformed into a high-end snack. Collaborating with the Family Welfare Empowerment (PKK) members from Desa Gabus, Sragen, the team introduce their cookies snack under the name of ‘Kue Bekatul-KuBe (t/n: Bekatul Cookies),’ which made from rice bran (bekatul).
According to their statement to the uns.ac.id team, the 343 Team Leader states that the team choose KuBe production training because most of the resident in the village are farmers. Hence, rice production in this village is abundant. “In average, the farmers can have two harvests, annually. The crops are then sold to rice mills, in which the process produce milling residue known as rice bran,” said Rina as the 343 KKN UNS Team leader on Wednesday (25/8/2021).
All this time, the resident of Desa Gabus only consider rice bran as cattle food, thus the abundant rice bran quantity were not processed optimally and lowering its selling price. Based on the conditions, to improve rice bran price, the UNS KKN Team disseminate the benefits and nutritional content of rice bran to the PKK members in Gabus Village. “Rice bran is beneficial for our digestive health and is good for diet program. Rice bran have high fiber and low sugar content. Rice bran consumption is suitable for diabetes patients,” said Nura, one of the KKN UNS 343 Team members.
Not only increasing the selling value of rice bran, the production of rice bran cookies also create business opportunities for the residents. Further, the KKN Team also shares basic packaging knowledge and advising them to pack the cookies product in a labeled packaging to increase the product appeals. Additionally, the training participants received entrepreneurship material, especially in digital marketing through e-commerce. This material attract huge enthusiasm from the PKK members, proven with the recurring inquiries regarding the event on Monday (23/8/2021).
Assisted by the Covid-19 task force and permission from the Village Head of Gabus Village, Sragen, Jawa Tengah, the training was successfully conducted through a direct meeting with a strict health protocol implementation. Through this rice brand innovation, the team wishes to empower the village resident economy by optimizing the rice bran usage. Moreover, the training is expected to promote national food self-sufficiency.
“Hopefully, this innovation can be a business opportunity for them, thereby increasing income during the ongoing Enforcement of Restrictions on Community Activities (PPKM),” Rina concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Alinda Hardiantoro
Editor: Dwi Hastuti
