IPB Team Equips Former Sukabumi Migrant Workers with Catfish Cultivation Downstreaming Skills
Bogor (ANTARA) - A number of former female migrant workers in Sukabability Regency have received integrated downstream processing skills for catfish cultivation through an integrated multi-trophic agriculture system, provided by a student creativity programme team from IPB University.
Soni Kurniawan, a representative of the IPB University Student Creativity Programme for Community Service (PKM-PM), stated in Bogor on Wednesday that the programme, titled “Mindshift 5: Kreasi Wargi”, is part of the Mindshift (Mindset & Independent) initiative which emphasises the importance of downstreaming cultivation results.
“After understanding the process of sustainable catfish cultivation, participants are encouraged to develop creativity in processing harvests into various culinary products that possess higher economic value,” said Soni.
The mentoring activity for these former female migrant workers took place in Kampung Muara, Jambenenggang Village, Kebonpedes District, Sukabumi Regency. The team focused on improving skills in processing cultivation results into value-added food products.
Through a “learning by doing” approach, participants did not only learn processing techniques but were also encouraged to innovate according to the potential and creativity of their respective groups.
The activity began with an introduction to the value-added potential of catfish through food processing, including the importance of maintaining product quality, implementing food safety principles, and recognising marketing opportunities for processed products as preparation for developing cultivation-based businesses.
Mentoring was conducted through stages including raw material preparation, catfish meat processing, ingredient mixing, forming catfish fillet burger patties, and product packaging techniques.
Training participants practised directly under the guidance of the IPB University PKM-PM team. Each group produced a catfish fillet burger as their primary product and developed one additional creative catfish menu.
The first group presented crispy catfish with sweet and sour sauce, the second group prepared ‘pecel lele’ with ‘nasi liwet’, while the third group served ‘pepes lele’ (steamed catfish in banana leaves) with green sambal.
“Participants are not only able to process cultivation results, but are also beginning to gain the confidence to create products with higher selling value,” said Soni.
Additionally, recipes and production standards were created as processing references. The basic recipe for the catfish fillet burger and the creative results of each group were documented to ensure they can be reproduced consistently with maintained quality.
The series of activities concluded with a product evaluation based on taste, texture, cleanliness, appearance, and production process compliance.
Through Mindshift 5: Kreasi Wargi, Soni and his team hope that participants will be increasingly prepared to develop innovative and sustainable cultivation-based businesses, while simultaneously strengthening the economic independence of the community.