Community empowerment by PT. Indexim Coalindo, which collaborates with Bina Swadaya Konsultan in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, has successfully provided benefits to the community in Kaliorang Village, East Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan. The mentoring program produced several cooperatives and several community groups in the agricultural and fisheries sectors.
Dwi Prayitno, Team Leader of the Bina Swadaya Konsultan economic empowerment program, said that besides the agricultural and fisheries sectors, the empowerment program also touches technical fields such as MSMEs and institutions.
In the field of MSMEs itself, 1 MSME association and 11 MSME groups have been formed, and agricultural and fishery cooperatives have been established for the institution itself.
“From the results of almost two years of assistance in 2 villages, we accompany ten groups of fishermen, 1 group of farmers and one fishery cooperative. In the agricultural sector in 2 villages, there are 19 farmer groups, one farmer women’s group and one agricultural cooperative,” he said when he was the speaker of the Wisma Hijau Talk event, which was held virtually some time ago.
At the beginning of activities in the agricultural sector, assistance was carried out by opening field schools and rice demplots. About ten field school meetings, able to provide new insights or knowledge in agriculture to group members.
“Many things we ended up knowing. First, before the field school, we used urea fertiliser. Now we use compost and the cost burden is not too high. Second, chili demplot also, third, from field schools emerged stocking points. Because friends are not 100 per cent organic,” said Supriyadi, one of the members of the farmer group who participated in the field school activities.
Another positive impact is that the presence of field schools also significantly impacts increasing rice yields. “It’s not just the scale. The cost is also cheap. It used to be only 1 ton per hectare. Now it is 1 ton and a half,” he added.
Meanwhile, from the fisheries sector, Zainudin, a Bakau Abadi fishermen group member, said that the presence of PT. Indexim Coalindo, together with Bina Swadaya Konsultan in Kaliorang Village, especially in the Bakau Abadi fishermen group, have provided business management and technical training on fishing gear that positively impacts local fishermen.
“In the past, the average fisherman went to sea with his fishing spot only in certain places such as on the outskirts or rocks. With the training, the BSK team and the fishermen group members agreed to make rumpon,” he explained.
After using rumpon, he said the fishermen group doubled the fish catch.
However, according to Zainuddin, the most important assistance awaited by members is in making the legality of fishermen groups.
“The most important thing is that BSK has assisted us in the legality of the fishermen group. So far, we have only been a group without any legal documents. With the presence of BSK, we now have legality, notary certificates, and others,” he said.
Agung Prasetio, Program Manager of BSK, revealed by utilising local potential field assistance carried out in East Kutai by PT. Indexim with BSK in the agriculture and fisheries sector can be done anywhere according to the local potential of each region.
“The point is to utilise local materials that can support the economic and fisheries sectors, which are correlated with economic improvement and can be applied in Indonesia according to local potential,” he said.
