Assistance and Strengthening of Local Human Resources in the Development of Sibetan Village as a Salak-Based Agro Tourism Center Village

The synergy between agriculture and tourism is increasingly being touted to raise the image of agriculture, especially zalacca with its mouth on improving farmers' welfare. In order to solidify these steps, a group of devotees from Udayana University, led by Prof. Dr. Ir. I Nyoman Rai, M.S. conducted the Community Service Development Program (PPDM) service in Sibetan Village in 2018 as a continuation of activities in 2017, with funding from the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education Republic of Indonesia. The activity that was planned to take place over the past 3 years took the theme of developing Sibetan Village as a Salak-Based Agrotourism Center Village by applying the superior research results of Udayana University to increase zalacca production, post-harvest handling, and processing zalacca products into various product variants and provide solutions to the undeveloped potential Salak agrotourism in Sibetan Village with a holistic approach based on the application of multi-disciplinary research results.

This multi-year activity involved three partner groups namely the Kerta Semaya Farmer Group, the "Agro Abian Salak" Farmer Group and the Agro Abian Salak Agro Tourism Group in Sibetan Village, Bebandem District, Karangasem, in the first year (2017). various activities have been carried out such as tracking trekking routes in zalacca plantations, training in making and packaging culinary made from zalacca, nurseries of 12 types of native zalacca germplasm, and making demonstration plots of good agricultural practices (GAP). Then in 2018 the activity will be continued by planting 12 species of zalacca seeds into the Salak Germplasm Botanical Garden, continued to assist in the application of GAP in zalacca cultivation (increased kuntitas, quality and production of fruit outside the season), assistance in obtaining production permits. and permits for the marketing of processed products from salak, training on serving culinary made from salak to tourists, as well as making brochures, leaflets and Salak based agro tourism guides.

The activities carried out received positive response from the local community as well as the Sibetan Village Head and his staff, so that the expectations of the members of the community service partners could be realized through good cooperation. Village officials and community leaders of the Sibetan Village realize that the advantages possessed by the Sibetan Village as a center and icon of salak in Bali need to be continually developed, preserved and increasingly empowered. The assistance provided through this community service program is expected to be able to open people's perspectives to always be able to utilize their potential in order to seize the opportunities that exist so that the welfare of the local community increases. The most important thing that is prioritized is to increase the capacity of human resources, and this according to them is an urgent need in line with the Sibetan Village development program, so that the icon as a salak producing center remains sustainable by developing it into an agrotourism center. The Udayana University team consisting of four people implemented a solution to increase the capacity of the Village HR through training, mentoring, workshops, procurement of demonstration plots and field days, so that the HR Village of Sibetan is able to manage superior and potential natural resources they have.

In every opportunity to meet with all the beneficiaries of the activity, the PPDM service team always emphasized the need to build good synergies between the guiding institutions and the community, because the activities carried out were only as triggers and whistles for the community to be able to independently develop the great potential they had.