IPB University’s community empowerment efforts have once again yielded tangible results. On Wednesday (10/8), the Institute for Agromaritime Development and Innopreneurship Acceleration (LPA2I) of IPB University, in collaboration with the Amil Zakat Institution (LAZ) Rabani, successfully held the inaugural harvest of purple sweet potatoes in Gunung Mulya Village, Bogor Regency.
The event was attended by Danang Aria Nugroho, SE, MSi, as the Secretary of LPA2I, and the Head of LAZ Rabani, Muhammad Faried, along with the executive board.
In his remarks, Faried emphasized that this program aims to enhance community capacity to become more independent, empowered, and developed in terms of skills, mindset, and economy.
Danang added that this empowerment program commenced on December 19, 2025, utilizing an intensive mentoring approach based on IPB University innovations, which were applied directly by farmers through to the harvest period.
“IPB University serves as a mentor as well as an offtaker through the One Village One CEO (OVOC) scheme. This scheme ensures the sustainability of the farmers’ business, covering land preparation, planting, and harvesting, through to the marketing of the yields,” he explained.
With this mechanism, Danang stated that farmers’ concerns regarding market access and price certainty could be addressed more systematically.
Furthermore, the program is designed as a sustainable empowerment model. Farmers do not only receive short term benefits but also gain knowledge and experience that allow them to continue agricultural practices independently.
“The implementation of OVOC has even pushed sweet potato commodities to penetrate the export market, confirming the high economic value of these local commodities,” Danang explained.
Therefore, he noted that the purple sweet potato harvest in Gunung Mulya holds several strategic meanings, including improving farmer welfare, developing highly nutritious local food, opening agriculture based business opportunities, and serving as a model for effective collaboration between universities and the community.
This inaugural harvest represents a real world application of science-based village empowerment programs. The collaboration between IPB University, LAZ Rabani, and the community is expected to continue delivering concrete impacts in supporting food self sufficiency and strengthening the village economy. (*/Rz) (IAAS/HNF)
