One year after participating in the Kick-Off Workshop for youth participation, dairy cooperative KAN Jabung officially formed a youth council named KAN Muda in September 2020. Young farmers united through this group to jointly find solutions to existing problems. One of the issues the cooperative faced was the waste of manure on cooperative member’s dairy farms. There are 8700 cows in Jabung Area of which the average the solid waste
of 20 Kg per cow per day is flushed directly into the river. Because of this, the local government has urged the cooperative to manage their waste better. Besides, other inhabitants who are non-dairy farmers and living in Jabung Area have opposed farming activities within this region because during wet season the combination of manure and rain water are blocking most of village sewer lines and causing manure-flood in the lower region of KAN Jabung.
Some members of youth council KAN Muda with Agripool expert Rob Berkers
The plan of the young farmers in cooperation with the cooperative is to manage manure by setting up manure collection points in every village, turning the waste into organic/compost fertilizer. The cooperative decided to rent a piece of land of 10 Ha for field testing of their compost fertilizer. Agriterra Indonesia invited an Agripool expert of Rabobank in the early stage of this project to explore the opportunities for manure management and turning it into a business unit of the cooperative; shifting waste into valuable resource, which also generates additional income for farmer members.
Next year, the youth plan to build a manure reservoir that can produce compost and purify water at the same time. The compost can partly be used for members farmers that cultivate sugar cane, but the largest part can be sold on the market.
All in all, the manure project at Kan Jabung seems to be taking off and could possibly be developing towards a viable business unit within the cooperative and be used a successful example of cooperative youth inclusion in Asia.
Agripool expert Rob Berkers with the Youth Council and Board of Directors of KAN Jabung
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