UNS — Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta students in Group 312 KKN UNS July—August 2021 provided innovative corn processing training for people in Sambirejo Village Slogohimo Sub-District, Wonogiri District.
The group consists of Rullyani Kuncoro Putri (Indonesian Language and Literature Education), Emanule Chyara Araceli Mulia (Guidance and Counseling Education), Erza Setyawan (Accounting Education), Happy Merdeka Wati (Statistics), Ridho Nur Santoso (Agrotechnology), Ryan Anggara (Indonesian Language and Literature Education), Yuqa Zahra Faza Nur Saffana (Economics Education), and Zalna Tiara (Law science).
Rully and the team initiated the training to implement their leading program, “Innovation of Corn Processing,” that matches their KKN theme “Creative Economy and Community Health”.
To uns.ac.id, Rully, as the Team Leader, stated that the training was joined by 15 participants who represented four hamlets and was implemented under strict health protocols. This program specifically targeted PKK members and villagers who have a small business in culinary.
The creative corn processings taught in training are corn nuggets and corn milk. Corn nugget is processed similar to nugget in general but with sweet corn as the main material. The corn milk is made from corn juice, cow milk, sugar, and salt mixed and boiled together.
“Corn milk is a healthy beverage for the body and is good to be consumed by everybody. This product can be consumed hot or cold. While corn nugget is selected because of the large numbers of processed frozen foods now,” Rully explained on Thursday (2/8/2021).
The group was supervised by Drs. Sugit Zulianto, M.Pd., also used the food analysis laboratory Universitas Syiah Kuala Banda Aceh results released on 11 September 2015. The laboratory analysis results explained that the carbohydrate content in corn nugget is closer to the maximum level with 24.8218% from 25%. The protein content has not reached the minimum level of 4.3772% from 12% because the nugget does not have ingredients with high protein content, such as chicken and fat contents that exceed the maximum level of 32.4600% from 20%.
“The benefits of corn nugget and corn milk are among other increasing immune systems, digestive health, source of energy, overcome anemia, reduce cholesterol, and prevent cancer and lung diseases,” Rully added.
The Potential of Corn Agriculture
This training is inseparable from the sub-optimal processing of corn in Sambirejo Village. The villagers tend to process corn by dry it and sell it at a low price, even though the corn yields in this village are overabundance. Sambirejo Village Chief, Yahmanto, supports this information. According to the release received by uns.ac.id from Group 312. “The corn (yields) are overabundance, but we lack in processing corns and are not maximum. What to do with the corns and how to dispose of (the waste),” he explained.
Group 312 KKN UNS also provided training on interesting packaging, aiming to improve Sambirejo villager’s creativity in packaging various processed products, mainly processed corn that was taught to be able to compete in the market.
“We hope that this (training) can be an alternative source of income for Sambirejo Villagers by started to empowering the MSMEs in corn processed results. We provided taught the villagers on the processed products that are beneficial for health and do not break the law,” Rully explained. Humas UNS
Reporter: Kaffa Hidayati
Editor: Dwi Hastuti