UNS — Carrot is one of natural resources owned by Gondosuli Village in Tawangmangu Subdistrict, Karanganyar District. The 2,000-population village has an abundance of carrot yield that they sorted to sell to consumers. Unfortunately, the low-quality carrots often end as livestock feeds, while these carrots can be processed into products with good economic potential. The local people also face difficulty with low carrot prices during the harvest season.
The Team of Holistic Rural Development and Empowerment Program Tim Program (PHP2D), Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS), captured this opportunity. The Team with 14 members provided an initiative to assist and train PKK members in Gondosuli Village to process the carrots into various processed foods with high selling prices.
PKK members are selected as the target of this program because the Team observed high enthusiasm from the members who also had participated in various village events, although they finance the activities with their personal funds. Therefore, the Team hoped that the training could educate and provide a business idea for PKK members to generate additional income in financing their activities.
In the training that runs from October to November 2021 under the supervision of Bhimo Rizky Samudro, S.E, M.Si, Ph.D., and collaboration with Agricultural Office Karanganyar, the PHP2D Team taught diverse food products from carrots, such as carrot brownies, nugget, noodles, gummy stick, and flour. The training was appreciated by the Head of Gondosuli Kidul Hamlet, Jarwo, who stated that the training provided a business idea for the PKK members.
“I appreciate and am happy with this event. I even enticed to apply the business idea on foods from carrots to empower the PKK members in Gondosuli village,” Jarwo said.
The foods introduced in training are selected because of their simple production and the equipment needed. The Team also helped the local people in marketing the products through digital marketing by creating accounts in Shopee and Instagram. The Team that won funding from the Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemdikbudristek) also shared the product information through their social media to reach wider marketing coverage.
“Hopefully, the program that we prepared for the village is useful and sustainable for Gondosuli people,” Yusuf said. Humas UNS
Reporter: Ida Fitriyah
Editor: Dwi Hastuti