Not Just Fermented Cassava!

A Breakthrough in North Bengkulu

By Diana Sari.          

It never crossed in my mind to pursue business on fermented cassava. Starting from cleaning up oil palm land from overgrown cassava plants which some of them were sold, given to neighbors, and processed into chips, but there was a lot left. Then, I thought why not just process it into fermented cassava? Next, I watched a tutorial video on YouTube about how to make it. I tried at least four times to find the proper composition.

Well, I am Diana Sari, one of the participants of Stube HEMAT Multiplication in Bengkulu. I live in Argamakmur, North Bengkulu, a regency with more than 4.400 km2 dominated by oil palm, rubber, and other plantations cultivated by residents. Several factories process palm fruit bunches into palm oil. Apart from that, there is coal mining, and the tourist spot is at Kemumu waterfall.

From social media, I know that North Bengkulu is suitable for vegetables because the temperature is quite cool, but I feel unskilled to plant vegetables on a large scale. So, I gave up planting vegetables. Then in 2022, there was oil palm land to do and my husband and I planted cassava between the oil palm plants. It turned out that cassava is inappropriate because it competes with oil palms for the nutrients, and the oil palm can become thin. My parents, uncle, and other family told me the same. Finally, we stopped planting cassava, but the cassava that had been planted grew and was ready to harvest.

I still remember the first production of 8 kg of fermented cassava marketed for IDR 12.000 per kg with a gross profit of almost IDR 100.000. My husband was interested and convinced me to do some more to sell for other week. At that time I forgot about the prohibition to plant cassava, even I asked my husband to replant it instead. I thought people in my village responded normally, but on the contrary, many people like my fermented cassava. So, I designed better packaging and labels. Luckily, the request comes every week before I advertise it. I am very enthusiastic and my husband is also supportive. On the other hand, this business makes me feel worth and confident being an entrepreneur.

The production of fermented cassava needs cassava, yeast, and banana leaves for wrapping in container boxes. Thursday is the beginning of production, where I just have to wait at home, and the cassava supplier comes and brings them to my house at IDR 2.500-3.000 per kg according to conditions. The fermentation process lasted for two nights. Currently, I can process 20 kg of raw cassava to produce 15-17 pax depending on their condition, some are too mature or not good enough, so the sorting starts from washing, and fermenting to packaging. So, only the best-fermented cassava is marketed for IDR 10.000 per pax (750 gr).

Since I made fermented cassava, people have been inspired to plant cassava by asking for seeds, so the cassava cultivation has expanded and its production has increased. My mother-in-law does too. She planted among young oil palm trees covering an area of ¾ hectares. I accommodate the harvests so that she gets income from it. I market to neighboring districts in Argamakmur and Girimulya, even though people say I am losing money on gasoline, my husband advised that promotion and marketing costs money. Moreover, production costs can be reduced because the raw materials are easy and come from my farmland.

Even though at the beginning, there was a feeling of embarrassment and hesitation to market it, however, once it was produced, my husband rushed to market it. He also said that we must produce food without preservatives, colorings, or flavorings, so this fermented cassava is one of them. We have to try  to manage what we have and not to be overthinking, and the important thing is being tough. My message to young people everywhere is, don’t feel embarrassed to market your products, and to keep learning by willing to accept input from others. If you fail, you have to learn the failure and try again. Try, Learn, and Make it happen!***