Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The beauty of Karawang City and its panorama surrounded by rice fields is still not known to many people. Even though this area is also one of the largest rice farming centers in Indonesia.
Apart from natural beauty, not many people know that this city has the advantage of coffee farming which has its own characteristics. For this reason, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (BBRI) built Brilian Mekarbuana Village, which is in the Sanggabuana Mountains, Tegalwaru District, Karawang.
BRI Micro Business Director Supari said empowerment in BRILiaN Village was a form of implementation Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in social aspects. Empowerment is carried out to generate village economic resilience and independence in this era new normal.
“This program is a village incubation program which aims to produce role models in village development through the implementation of superior village leadership practices and a spirit of collaboration to optimize village potential based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s),” explained Supari in an official statement, Monday (23/10/2023).
As for BRILian Sangrabuana Village, it is located around 42 kilometers from the center of Karawang City with a travel time of around 1 hour 42 minutes on winding and up and down roads. Geographical conditions like this make it impossible for residents in the village called Mekarbuana to farm rice.
However, this condition also has great potential in developing other livelihoods. For example, there are dozens to dozens of tourist destinations in this village, ranging from culinary, natural tourism, to camping areas. No wonder this village is better known as a village Agro-Ecotourism.
The Head of Mekarbuana Village, Jaji Maryono, said that since 2021 it has been registered as a BRILiaN Village, and relies on superior local commodities ranging from durian, mangosteen, avocado, petai to jengkol. However, there is one product that immediately brought this village an achievement in being awarded the Best BRILiaN Village 2021 in Jakarta, namely processed coffee.
“In 2021, we will join BRILiaN Village, through coffee products and other activities that we carry out in the village through Bumdes (Village-Owned Enterprises), Alhamdulillah, our village can become 3rd place in Jakarta 1 (Regional Offices) and entered the top 15 nationally,” said Jaji.
Jaji said that initially the product known as “Sanggabuana Robusta Coffee” was not well explored. Even though the harvest capacity of this coffee can reach 100 tons per year with a coverage of 452 hectares in one harvest.
The local community also has its own brand that uses the harvest, namely coffee sachets called “KOSA” or Sanggabuana Coffee. However, thanks to being registered as a BRILiaN Village, various forms of empowerment are available to all business actors, from farmers at the upstream level to distributors at the downstream level.
Empowerment and assistance in the form of financing and capital, procurement of supporting machines, and education and training are all obtained.
“BRI helped us a lot in terms of capital through KUR, so our community was helped a lot. Another example, the coffee maker previously didn’t have a coffee mixing machine to mix coffee and sugar, now BRI is helping us. So BRI has a big role in our village,” he continued.
On a different occasion, Head of Bumdes Buanamekar Dedi Priyatna described BRI’s empowerment which targets human resource development in the village. The training provided has proven successful in creating a society that is more independent and dares to compete in business processes.
“Because to be honest, in terms of human resources, Mekarbuana village still needs to be improved, so to build this village we have to work extra hard. We have carried out several trainings, one of which is for our coffee, starting from seeding, cultivation, harvesting, post-harvest, to product processing,” said Dedi .
Both Jaji and Dedi are determined to make coffee products in Mekarbuana Village the main attraction that not only attracts buyers but also local and international tourists. However, this village is surrounded by various tourist destinations, ranging from natural, religious to artificial tourism.
The most typical ones are Cigentis Waterfall, Bandung Waterfall, Peteuy Waterfall, and several other small waterfalls. Then there is Raja Camp, climbing Mount Sanggabuana, Tourist Village, Empang Sari, Jeci Hills, up to Sungai Muara Tiga and Haji Enim.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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