To Prevent Stunting and Boost Family Incomes, a Management Professor from the Faculty of Economics at Unsri Teaches Women from the PKK in South Tanjung Dayang How to Process Bananas and Sweet Potatoes

A team of faculty members from the Management Study Program, Faculty of Economics, Sriwijaya University (FE Unsri) carried out the 2026 Community-Based Service program titled “Innovation in Processed Food Products as Village Value Products to Enhance the Competitiveness of MSMEs and Prevent Stunting” in Tanjung Dayang Selatan Village, South Indralaya Subdistrict, Ogan Ilir Regency. A series of empowerment activities targeting members and leaders of the village’s PKK Mobilization Team began with a community meeting in September 2026, followed by on-site mentoring sessions on October 5 and October 15, 2026.

The implementation of this program was driven by two critical issues identified by the service team in Tanjung Dayang Selatan Village, an area spanning 9.27 square kilometers with a population of 2,149, the majority of whom work in the agricultural sector. On one hand, the village has an abundance of its flagship commodities—bananas and sweet potatoes—grown on 25 hectares of land, with a total production of 3,055 metric tons; however, these crops have not yet been processed optimally. On the other hand, the prevalence of stunting in the village stands at 28 percent—higher than the regency average of 24 percent—due to limited knowledge of food and nutrition among homemakers and the suboptimal educational capacity of PKK cadres.

Facing these dual challenges, a team of academics from the Unsri Faculty of Economics designed an integrated solution by engaging homemakers to process raw materials—such as bananas and sweet potatoes—into innovative, nutritious foods with high market value as the village’s flagship products (village value products). This approach aims to promote the self-reliance of home-based businesses to increase farming families’ income, while also providing healthy, nutritious, and affordable local food alternatives for the surrounding community.

The target partners in this program are 30 housewives—members of the Tanjung Dayang Selatan PKK aged 25 to 50—who are active in posyandu (community health posts) and village social and religious activities. Given that most participants come from farming families with monthly incomes ranging from Rp1.2 million to Rp2 million and 75 percent of them lack access to formal business financing, the mentoring focuses on practical skills for home-based culinary innovations that are easy to replicate using locally available ingredients.

Through this ongoing collaboration between faculty members from the Management Program at the Unsri Faculty of Economics and the PKK women’s group in Tanjung Dayang Selatan Village, the capacity of village leaders to educate families on meeting their nutritional needs is expected to increase significantly. In addition to strengthening food security and reducing stunting rates from an early age, the development of these banana and cassava products serves as the foundation for empowering women-led MSMEs capable of independently driving the rural economy.