Unsri Community Service Program Students Teach Local Residents How to Turn Organic Waste into Compost

Sriwijaya University (Unsri) carried out a community service activity with students participating in the Community Service Program (KKN) in Pagar Dewa Village, Jarai Subdistrict, Lahat Regency. This program aims to increase community productivity and income by converting organic waste into products with practical and economic value.

In addition to providing education on organic waste processing, the community service team also conducted training on calculating the cost of goods sold as a basis for determining the selling price of diversified agricultural products. Thus, the community gained two forms of learning: the skills to process materials into products and the knowledge to calculate costs for setting selling prices.

Parama Santati, an Unsri lecturer on the community service team, explained that the program aims to introduce methods for independently producing organic fertilizer or compost by utilizing household waste as well as vegetable and rice harvest residues.

According to her, the community is expected to understand the importance of maintaining cleanliness and environmental sustainability through the independent processing of organic waste. Waste that is not properly managed has the potential to cause environmental pollution and become a source of disease. Therefore, processing waste into solid organic fertilizer can be an alternative way to utilize waste more effectively.

This first phase of the community service program involved three Unsri faculty members: Prof. Dr. Sulastri, M.E., M.Komp., as team leader; Parama Santati, S.E., M.Kom.; and Yulia Hamdaini, S.E., M.Si. The program’s implementation was also supported by six students from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Sriwijaya.

The program received support from the Jarai Subdistrict Head, Reyno Delfansyah. He viewed the initiative to process organic waste into compost as a positive step that could begin in Pagar Dewa Village. Subdistrict officials hope that similar programs can be continued and implemented in other villages within the Jarai Subdistrict so that waste problems can be gradually reduced.

Through this initiative, Unsri aims to encourage the community to become more self-reliant in managing organic waste while also introducing opportunities for developing agricultural products with economic value. The combination of composting skills and an understanding of cost accounting is expected to support environmental management and the development of community-based businesses in Pagar Dewa Village.