The Community Service Team (Pengabdian Masyarakat, Pengmas) American Regional Studies Program (Kajian Wilayah Amerika, KWA) School of Strategic and Global Studies (SSGS) Universitas Indonesia (UI) held Digital Marketing Training for Coffee MSMEs in Sapit Village, Suela District, East Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara. Through Digital Marketing Training for Coffee MSMEs, it is hoped that it can penetrate the global market and improve the economy of the people in Sapit Village.
At the training, participants, who were dominated by young people, received explanations from resource persons about the importance of digital marketing and how to make attractive product packaging. “With the aim that they are able to improve their ability to market products in the form of coffee and are able to use environmentally friendly technology for product marketing purposes,” said Bayu Kristianto, Ph.D., Head of the American Regional Studies Program at SSGS, Universitas Indonesia, on Monday (9/8/2022).
Bayu said coffee as an agricultural product of the village community is increasingly entering the market and is recognized by the wider community, as well as coffee lovers in particular. “Our big hope is that these village communities will be able to manage the natural resources they have on their own land and not depend on parties outside the village, such as foreign companies or government agencies,” he said.
Bayu hopes that through this community service, the efforts being pursued by farmers and MSME activists in this village can be more advanced and developed with training on digital marketing techniques. And with the use of the latest technological tools in the marketing process that also contributes to environmental conservation.
“We want to involve community members in this village, who are mainly involved in the coffee growing business, in this activity so that the benefits of this activity can be felt by those who need it,” said Bayu.
Sapit Village Head H Sriatun, S.Pt., welcomed the implementation of the KWA SSGS UI community service in his village. “Welcome from Jakarta, lecturers and students to this village. We are grateful for this activity,” said Sriatun.
Sriatun hopes that this activity can have a positive impact on the village. “I am as sure as I can be,” Sriatun said.
Participants followed the training with enthusiasm. One of the training participants, Agus Fatra Wijaya (26 years old) has been working in coffee since 2017. He is now a successful Indonesian coffee ambassador from West Nusa Tenggara.
To this day, the alumnus of Mataram University’s Bachelor of Agriculture program continues to work in the agricultural sector, which is his field of education. He tried to focus on coffee processing, starting from nurseries, selling seeds, selling beans, cultivating to selling the powder.
Agus formed the Millennial Coffee Farmers Group in Sapit to develop this potential agricultural sector. His efforts to engage millennial youth have been successful. He managed to get about 20 people to become coffee farmers.
