Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia– Ibru Village was selected as the Best Innovative and Digitalization Village in the BRILian Village program. This achievement was achieved because Ibru Village, through BUMDes Suka Makmur, succeeded in developing its natural resource potential.

Ibru is located in Mestong District, Muaro Jambi Regency. Compared to other villages in Jambi, Ibru is a small village inhabited by 271 families.

Ibru Village has natural springs and lots of unused land that has the potential to be cultivated on a massive scale. To obtain superior commodities while improving the local economy, Ibru Village is innovating with the abundant potential that the region has.

Apart from that, Ibru Village also continues to develop the agricultural sector, by utilizing idle land to plant rhizome plants such as turmeric. The turmeric rhizome plant was chosen to be cultivated into health products as well as to boost the community's economy.

Director of BUMdes Suka Makmur, Anggoro Kasih explained, in order to create prosperous village residents, especially farmers, the village government through BUMDes Suka Makmur is trying to utilize dry land which is considered suitable for farming biopharmaceutical plants such as turmeric.

Biopharmaceutical plants are plants that are useful as herbal medicine or herbal medicine. This type of plant is easy to grow on dry land and easy to harvest with a fairly short harvest time.

BUMDes Suka Makmur continues to carry out various research and innovations until finally in 2022, BUMDes Suka Makmur tries another innovation from turmeric derivative products, namely turmeric bar soap, which is produced for household needs and as souvenirs. From here, derivative products emerge from turmeric crackers, room fresheners, crystal turmeric powder, and turmeric skin as an eco enzyme.

“Cultivating biopharmaceutical plants has been proven to help the welfare of farmers in Ibru Village. Moreover, Ibru Village is supported by abundant natural potential, so that its people can take part in developing industries made from medicinal plants in Indonesia,” he said in a written statement, quoted Thursday ( 3/28/2024).

He explained that in the process of developing and processing turmeric, BUMDes was assisted by two farmer groups and the surrounding community. To cultivate turmeric, BUMDes asks its residents to plant turmeric in their yards.

“In the cultivation process, BUMDes also participates in educating farmer groups. From the process of developing derivative products, it is known that each product that will be produced has a different harvest period. The fairly short harvest period also makes the price of turmeric stable because it is harvested in stages ,” he explained.

Getting Stronger Because of the BRILiaN Village Program

Anggoro added that the Ibru Village government has made various efforts to become a model village in Jambi Province. In recent years, Ibru Village has become an Integrated Laboratory Village (DLT) because it actively mobilizes the community, especially farmer groups, to carry out product diversification activities based on local potential.

“Mantri from BRI advised us to take part in the BRILian Village program. While participating in the BRILian Village program, our village actively took part in various training provided by BRI's business cluster. A lot of training was provided, starting from marketing management, financial management, to packaging.

Currently, Ibru Village's turmeric products have been introduced to two neighboring countries, namely Turkey and Malaysia, and have received a positive response. After becoming the Best Innovative and Digitalization Village, Ibra Village plans to develop other turmeric derivative products, such as body wash.

BUMDes Suka Makmur will also build a digital house, production house, rhizome washing house, drying house. Everything was built in the same area, not just for production purposes, but some of the areas could also be used as new tourism potential.

“We will create agro-industry and bio-pharmaceutical agro-tourism. So the place we build will become an industry-based tourist attraction,” said Anggoro.

On a different occasion, BRI Main Director Sunarso explained that BRILiaN Village is a village empowerment program with the aim of producing role models in village development which was initiated by BRI as a form of agent of development. By the end of 2023, there were 3,178 villages that had received BRILiaN Village empowerment.

“The BRILiaN Village Program is a real example of BRI's commitment as a state-owned company in implementing economic value and social value simultaneously, so there is no need to be conflicted, with BRI's ability to navigate challenges well, the company's goals can be achieved well,” stressed Sunarso.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

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