ULM Lecturers and Students Empower Residents to Create Vegetable Village Tourism
Banjarbaru – Lecturer at the University of Lambung Mangkurat (ULM) is carrying out a mandatory service lecturer program by empowering the community to create vegetable village tours in the Landasan Ulin Utara Village, Banjarbaru City. The team of dedicated lecturers included H Aulia, S.Sos., MAP., Sidderatul Akbar, S.Sos., M.Sc., Dewi Purboningsih, S.AP., M.AP., and assisted by several students namely M Rizal Bima, Hijjatin Mardhatina, Jhanny Sabatina Frinitasari. “The lecturer team first carried out research in this area, so that we could find the problems experienced by local residents,” said the Speaker of the Sidderatul Akbar Service Lecturer Team in Banjarbaru, Sunday.
Sidderatul said that the lecturer service activities took the theme “Consolidation of farmer groups in the formation of educational tours of the Laura Vegetable Village”. “Residents of the vegetable village have high motivation but they need a companion to foster and educate on technical implementation,” he said. He said that even though the area has great potential for a vegetable garden, his party found problems in the community in RT04/RW02, including that farmers were not able to design and determine location points to serve as garden icons so that they have characteristics that outsiders can recognize. According to him, the characteristics of the location need to be designed so that the vegetable garden is easily remembered by outsiders so that it can increase the level of sales and income of local residents. This has become one of the marketing techniques so that people from outside the area have a high interest in visiting the vegetable village. Then regarding the management of garden processing so that it becomes a vegetable tourism village, the local residents are not yet proficient in determining what initial steps to take.
Sidderatul revealed that education and coaching are the main steps to determine the future of vegetable garden farmers in order to improve the standard of living and the economy of local residents. Participants in the educational activity from the Serving Lecturer Team invited as many as 15 people including the surrounding community and youth from the Karang Taruna organization. The lecturer service activities also have the aim of awakening and preserving the interests of the next generation, namely the children of vegetable garden farmers in the local village, especially during the technological era many children of farmers began to leave this profession.
“We have to explore the potential that exists for the benefit of future generations,” said Sidderatul. Meanwhile, the chairman of the local Karang Taruna, Eko Winarto, said that local residents need coaching and education so they have ideas and thoughts to develop the potential of a vegetable garden. Eko admits that farmers only rely on the nearest market to sell vegetables, while the potential for garden produce is quite high. He said that his party was still experiencing several problems such as the need for fertilizer and the idea of processing the garden so that it had an icon that was easily recognized by many people. Eko hopes that the trade in vegetable products from his area can increase outside the island. “We need technical assistance and more attention from the local government,” said Eko.
