22 January 2022
Anonymous Writer
Born to a poor family in Sukoharjo on June 24, 1962, Yusak Maryunianta graduated with an engineering degree in 1985 from the Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, and later earned a Master's in Agricultural Development Economics from the Graduate Program at Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, graduating Cum Laude. This humorous yet principled individual has been serving as a permanent civil servant lecturer in the Faculty of Agriculture at Universitas Sumatera Utara since 1986.
Throughout his life and career, he has shown a high concern for agricultural development, social dynamics, extension, and empowerment of rural communities. Given his understanding and concern for rural issues, it's not surprising that besides his teaching duties, he remains active in professional organizations like the Indonesian Agricultural Extension Association (Perhiptani) and the Agricultural Extension Commission. He has also been hired by development planning consultants, government and non-government institutions as an expert or freelance facilitator. From 1990-1998 and 2002-2005, he joined JICA as a Socio-Economic Expert, from 2006-2008 with USAID as a Participatory Planning Facilitator, and from 2008-2010 with German Agro Action as a Community Empowerment Facilitator for the Aceh Post-Tsunami Reconstruction Program.
He continuously sharpens his sensitivity to rural community issues, particularly disaster-affected communities. Motivated by his deep concern for the suffering of farming communities and starting with the idea of livelihood recovery for communities affected by the eruption of Mount Sinabung, he and several other Agribusiness Program lecturers at FP-USU (Dr. Ir. Sinar Indra Kesuma, MSi., Ir. Thomson Sebayang, MT, and Ir. M. Jufri, MSi) initiated a multi-year community service program (2018-2021) titled “Livelihood Recovery of Salak Farmers Affected by the Sinabung Eruption in Kutambaru Village, Tiganderket District, Karo Regency”.
This participatory need assessment-based service was implemented through a series of programs such as institutional strengthening, mentoring in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), developing rural agro-industry, and salak marketing. The program successfully inspired and motivated farmers to recover from adversity, initiated disaster-aware and environmentally conscious cultivation practices, established more effective agribusiness institutional systems, established dynamic partnerships across all agribusiness subsystems, increased the availability of agribusiness infrastructure (such as farm roads, compost houses, packaging huts, etc.), initiated the use of digital platforms in product marketing, and began developing agro-tourism initiatives.
Most encouragingly, after the multi-year mentoring process, the market scope for products expanded from traditional markets to modern markets (through partnership with PT Silangit Farm) and began to open export channels for salak to Malaysia. Through digital marketing systems, exports to Saudi Arabia are also being explored. During the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers enjoyed relatively high prices of 10,000-11,000 rupiah per kg, up from the previous 6,500-8,000 rupiah per kg (Image 1).
The success of this community service idea is not the first for him, as in the previous period (2014-2016), he led the first Multi-Year Community Service scheme rolled out at USU. The community service titled “Poverty Alleviation based on Ecosystem Recovery and Development of Participatory Institutional Models in Rugemuk Coastal Area, Pantai Labu District, Deli Serdang Regency” was based on community participation and mentoring.
This approach successfully dynamized local community institutions, raised local awareness of the importance of mangrove forest conservation, developed mangrove-based fish farming, strengthened coastal village institutional networks, initiated mangrove-based rural agro-industries, increased fishermen's income, and elevated the village's status as an environmental education site.
Thanks to the team's mentoring, the Mangrove Group in this village won the First Prize in the 2014 Spatial Planning Action Program Competition initiated by the North Sumatra Provincial Housing and Settlement Office.
Impressively, after a rigorous and hierarchical selection process (from local to national levels), one of the mangrove group leaders, Anuar, won the highest national environmental award “Anugerah KALPATARU” from the President of Indonesia (Joko Widodo) as the Best Environmental Pioneer in 2016 (Image 2).
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