community development

Fruit and Spice Village Tours

The “Village Tours” is borne out of Sido Muncul’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme that focuses on Community Empowerment.

Desa Bergas Kidul and Desa Diwak are two of the five the Ring 1 villages, alongside Desa Ngempon, Desa Karangjati, and Desa Klepu. The Ring system refers to the villages covered by our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. In this case, the Ring 1 villages are the closest to our factory.

Ring 1 villages have the potential to become an integrated tourist attraction, much like Sido Muncul’s agritourism educational programme, which attracts more than 5,000 visitors every month. In the pilot stage, we chose Desa Bergas Kidul and Desa Diwak as the programme’s beneficiaries.

Launched in 2016, the programme received support from its stakeholders: the village administrations of both Desa Diwak and Desa Bergas Kidul, the Ministry of Agriculture, and Consultants from @Glow. In Desa Bergas Kidul, we distributed 1,800 seedlings of the native wina avocado to 62 locals. The seedling’s survival rate was excellent at 70%. In Desa Diwak, we distributed 300 durian seedlings to 33 locals. The durian seedlings were native varieties: Bawor, Pelangi, and Matahari.

In addition to monitoring durian cultivation, we also held trainings on snack production for women of the Family Welfare Programme (PKK) in Desa Bergas Kidul and Desa Diwak. The training was to help improve local economies as the durian and avocado trees were starting to bear fruit, where the goal is to enable both farmers groups and PKK members to enjoy the benefits of our programs. In 2020, our assistance has helped Desa Bergas Kidul’s homegrown Mbok Jajan brand to increase its sales.

Alongside the Fruit Villages, we also launched the Spice Village (Desa Rempah) that provide trainings and assistance in Javanese long pepper cultivation. Our research has found that Javanese long pepper grown in Desa Gudangharjo, Kecamatan Paranggupito, Kabupaten Wonogiri contains high levels of piperine. It follows that the pepper’s cultivation should be developed in Desa Gudangharjo. In addition to the Javanese long pepper cultivation, we also distributed 1,000 breadfruit and 2,000 tangerine seedings as part of our CSR programme to further empower community farming activities.

We regularly monitor progress of our assistance programmes. We are also looking to launch new programmes, such as handicraft making and palm sugar production aimed at Family Welfare Programme members, to improve the living standards of communities in Desa Gudangharjo. As the programmes continue to mature, we are also partnering with the Serba Mulia Farmers Group to establish a market for farmers in Desa Gudangharjo.