Research institute targets small businesses

Research institute targets small businesses

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Good news for small farmers and prospective entrepreneurs. The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) has opened a unit to help with research development to add value to agricultural products.

The Technical Service Unit (UPT) of the Chemical Technology and Process Development Agency (BPPTK) at Gading village, Playen, Gunungkidul, was set up in 2002 with the aim of becoming a leading working unit in implementing the results of development and research activities in the food, animal feed and chemical industry.

The UPT BPPTK was a consequence of the reorganization in LIPI and previously encompassed three separate units in Bandung (West Java), Lampung, and Yogyakarta under the control of the institute's UPT of Chemical Processed Material Development Agency (BBOK).

Occupying an office of some 28,000 square meters on a 3.5- hectare plot of land, the unit has helped local farmers in increasing production and marketing.

"One of our main tasks is indeed helping small and medium enterprises produce innovative, marketable products, thus helping to improve the people's welfare," Head of the UPT BPPTK Putut Irwan Pudjiono told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

A group of salak pondoh farmers in the sub-district of Turi, Sleman, for example, was assisted in producing canned salak pondoh, or snake fruit, for export. The farmers earlier complained that their income had dropped as a result of the declining price of the fruit.

Another group of rebung (bamboo shoot) farmers in a Central Java region, received support in the production of canned bamboo shoots, in order to increase the value of the commodity.

The unit is equipped with adequate human resources and modern facilities including a laboratory and a processing room with a canning line, tempeh maker, drying appliance, flour mills, and other supporting facilities such as clean water processor and waste disposal facility.

The laboratory, measuring 20 square meters, is designed for conducting biological, chemical, and physical tests or analysis.

"We welcome anyone in need of our help," said Putut, adding that the unit usually offers free research to its clients and experiment needed for the goods or commodity in question, until they are ready for market production.

"We only charge them for the processing once a particular product is considered ready to be launched in the market. For canning, for example, we require them to pay Rp 4,000 (45 U.S. cents) per can excluding the label," Putut said.

The unit also does its own research on processed food and introduces the samples and products to interested businesspeople. The products include canned tempeh curry, tempeh bacem (sweet fried tempeh), baby corn, pineapple, fruit cocktail, quail eggs, bamboo shoots, snake fruit, and kolang-kaling (sugar palm fruits).

The unit's maximum production capacity is 10,000 cans daily.

"Our canned tempeh products have even been marketed in the U.K., and served on the main menu at a hospital there," said Putut but declined to name the hospital or its location.

The unit also produce processed food made of mushroom.

"Although it is the result of a relatively new research program, we have so far succeeded in making samples of bottled and canned mushrooms. We have even succeeded in further producing processed mushroom including mushroom sausage, nugget, abon jamur (shredded, dried mushroom), and bakso jamur (mushroom sausage)," he said.

Also noteworthy is the unit's joint effort with some non- government organizations and local governments in developing a tempeh-based flour used as a supplementary ingredient to produce nutritious food for infants and toddlers under five years of age and elementary school students.

"People have widely recognized it as BMC (bahan makanan campuran) formulated flour," Putut said.

He added that UPT BPPTK was also conducting research and development activities on animal feed and organic products. The unit has developed a special dried grass to feed the cattle during the dry season.

It has also initiated the "integrated cow and chicken farming system". In it, cow manure is used as a medium to grow worms to feed chickens. The cow manure is also used as the raw material for producing biogas as an alternative energy source.

The organic development program aims to produce competitive and added value products, technology and service. The current organic products on research include mengkudu (Java nony) fruit, pare (bittergourd), akar wangi (fragrant roots of a spice tree), betel leaves, and empon-emponan (herbal plants).

Examples of the products of this category include bengkoang (tuber) flour, mengkudu flour, turmeric flour, and ginger flour. Others include sliced, dried agricultural commodities and distilled products such as atsiri oil, ginger oil, clove oil, and furfural (an organic chemical agent used in natural oil drilling activities).

"The research and production are made possible through cooperation with the private sector. Thank God, the production keeps increasing although it is as a whole still produced in a limited volume," Putut said, adding that the unit's activities are mainly funded by the state budget. This year alone, the government has allocated Rp 710 million for research and development.

UPT BPPTK currently has 44 employees including research staff, technicians and analysts, administrative staff and production executives.