Increasing Productivity Through the Implementation of Corn Cipling Tools for The Community in Nagari Bukik Sikumpa Lima Puluh Kota Regency
Nagari Bukik Sikumpa, located in Lareh Sago Halaban District, Limapuluh Kota Regency, is a corn production center in West Sumatra. The corn plant whose development is quite promising, is the livelihood of the community in the village of Bukik Sikumpa. Farmers have an average area of one hectare of corn plantations with yields of up to 3 tons / harvest.
Corn production has increased significantly in line with the wider community corn crop harvest. The area of this maize plant based on existing data for the Lareh Sago Halaban sub-district reaches 1557 ha with an annual production of 9639 tonnes, so that the average productivity is around 6.19 tonnes / ha. The increase in productivity is of course inseparable from the efforts to process the results or increase the production process of corn plants carried out by the community. The process of shelling the harvested corn is still found traditionally / manually by hand and also through the wage system in the processing industry. Of course this will affect their level of income from agricultural products, gardening corn crops.
From a discussion conducted with the Mawar farmer groupchaired by Rina Susanti in Nagari Bukik Sikumpa, Lareh Sago Halaban District, Limapuluh Kota Regency, there are problems related to the corn shelling process. Farmers who own land sometimes find it difficult to shell corn. Grain shelling is done manually, so it takes a long time and becomes large because it requires a lot of workers. The process of shelling corn grains is still using the hands and fingers, one by one, peeling the kernels off the cobs. This manual process has a risk to work safety so that the fingers can be sprained and bruised on the soles of the fingers. Thus, the corn sheller tool is very useful and beneficial for the community. In the application of technology for farming communities this will facilitate and increase production productivity.
Based on statements and discussions with farmer community groups in Nagari Bukik Sikumpa, it was a motivation / impetus for implementing the UNP lecturer team chaired by Hendri Nurdin with members of Waskito and Hasanuddin through the 2020 Community Partnership Program (PKM). people who apply science and technology and use technology in observing the conditions in the corn farming community in Nagari Bukik Sikumpa. The application of science and technology that is carried out with the community is in the form of corn shelling system engineering, intermediary engineering of shelling machine models as a means of post-harvest handling. With the hope that this science and technology application activity can increase their production output or income level so as to improve people’s welfare.
From this PKM activity has a profound impact on society in optimizing the productivity of the results or processes to improve one source of household income. The mindset of the community and building insights in developing one’s own abilities with the potential of the environment that is owned becomes a link between the lecturers (university officials) and the community. The application of technology in an effort to improve the production process is a valuable feedback concept for the corn farming community who can immediately receive the benefits. Thus the application of science and technology to partner communities shows a success towards the Community Partnership Program that was built together.
