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| Cocoa farmers who participated in the community service program of UMM. (Foto: Istimewa) |
As a country with a high amount of cocoa production, Indonesia has an excellent opportunity to make cocoa a national export commodity. However, based on reality, Indonesian cocoas are not yet farmers’ main commodity. Viewing the chance, the Food Technology Science of UMM did community service to cocoa farmers. The team from UMM also involved the Association of Farmers Groups at the Ringinkembar Village in Sumbermanjing Wetan, Malang, from Agustus until December 2022.
The Faculty of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry block grant funded this community service. The Head of the Food Technology Science department, Hanif Alamudin Manshur, S. Gz., M. Si. explained that this community service aimed to counsel farmers. Overall, this counseling discussed the processes of cocoa bean fermentation, which consist of four stages: mechanization, reaction, active compound formation, and halal critical point determination.
“These fermentation processes play a vital role in the cocoa industry. They are done to enhance the taste of cocoa beans so that once the beans are completely processed, the produced chocolate has a rich and distinctive taste. Though the processes are essential, many cocoa farmers in Indonesia still do not know them. Therefore, in this counseling, we focus on the cocoa fermentation stage,” uttered the lecturer and expert in nutritional food studies.
Further explaining, Hanif perceives that the community service impacted the farmers positively, as seen by their enthusiasm for sharing experiences. The discussion of important topics in the agricultural process also supported it.
In addition, the Food Technology Science of UMM also simultaneously signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in cooperation with the Association of Cocoa Farmer Groups in Sumbermajing Sub-district, Wetan.
Hanif said, “This collaboration is expected to create the Center of Indonesian Coffee and Cacao Research in Jember. It is perceived to be on appeal for buyers and practical research.”
On the other hand, Sujito, the Chief of the Association of Farmer Groups of Sumbermanjin Sub-district, expressed that the collaboration with UMM is one of the parts of community and university synergy. It is mainly to preserve the real cultivation of cocoa. All this time, farmers only depended on buyers’ motivation to cultivate cacao. Therefore, with this synergy, they can be excited to grow cocoa.
Besides, UMM has encouraged another party. Sutijo expects the academic staff of the White Campus to show the results of practical research in cocoa processing. According to him, actual farmers need concrete and practical steps in fermentation. Primarily, an existing ferment box takes a long time, at least 2 to 3 days, whereas the results have not fulfilled the standard.
“We expect our collaboration with UMM to increase buyers’ interest to support the crops and fermentation process of farmers in Sumbermanjing Sub-district, Wetan,” he ended his statement. (imh/wil)
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