THE COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND TECHNOLOGICAL PRODUCT APPLICATION IN KERTASARI, BANDUNG REGENCY, WEST JAVA, INDONESIA

Abstract

Kertasari Sub-district is not only the largest producer of potatoes in West Java, but also proves itself as one of the suppliers of potato at the national level. The quality of the potatoes is not inferior. The target markets include some regions, such as Jakarta, Sumatra, and Kalimantan. The potato commodity is also able to penetrate the export market, especially Singapore, and some well-known supermarkets in Indonesia. Based on the field observations and interviews with some women/mothers, they have tried to help their families' income by processing the agricultural products into various processed products such as potato chips produced traditionally, which are sold to the surrounding areas. Nevertheless, the quality of potato chips has not matched market demands. They also face other problems, i.e. limitation in entrepreneurship and technology capacity. The solutions and output targets for the community empowerment through entrepreneurship and application of technology are as follows: 1) What are the implementation procedures, the solution steps to partner’s problems, and the types of expertise in the implementation of community empowerment through entrepreneurship and the technology application of the potato chips processing machine?, 2) How is the overview of science and technology transferred in the implementation of community empowerment through entrepreneurship and the technology application of the potato chip processing machine?, and 3) How are the solution and target of activity implementation achieved from the priority problems, which include: entrepreneurship problems and problems in the application of potato chip processing technology. The approach methods used to apply the solutions and achieve the output targets include training, technical Tuition (Bimtek), mentoring, and application of the technological product to the partners. The implementation of community empowerment through entrepreneurship and technology application has a positive impact on the two potato chip business groups in Cibereum Village, Kertasari Sub-district, Bandung Regency, West Java, Indonesia. This can be seen from the implementation of science and technology through training, technical Tuition, and technological mentoring by giving the following achieved solutions: 1) The partners’ entrepreneurship capacity, which includes a) The partners have high motivation in running their businesses, b) The partners are able to run a correct business management, c) The partners have a business plan as their business guideline, d) The partners are able to identify market opportunities and market/business networks and 2) The application of technology to the partners, which includes a) Each partner owns a potato peeler machine and the washer, a wave potato slicer machine, a deep fryer machine, an oil draining machine (spinner), a product packaging machine, and a bag sealer in which the machine designs are created by the team, b) The production process is more effective and can produce more potato chips, c) The partners’ skills increase by 100%, and d) The products have a better quality.