USU PUBLIC RELATIONS - Batu Melenggang Village has considerable agricultural and livestock potential but has not been maximally utilized. One of the economic activities of the community in Batu Melenggang Village is farming and animal husbandry, especially cattle and goat farming. The farmers use the trapping system and the slaughtering system (angonan). The large number of breeders and farmers made them take the initiative to form a group called “Kelompok Tani Berkat Tani” in 2017. The purpose of creating this group is to develop agriculture and cattle farming more actively and improve the welfare and economy of the group and the surrounding community.

Initially formed on August 21, 2017, this group was a beginner-class farmer group with certificate number 470-22/BM/II/2018. However, in early February 2021, this farmer group was upgraded to an advanced class based on a certificate issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, with certificate number 662/DISTAN PANGAN/KPP-II/2021. Currently, there are 19 members of the “Berkat Tani” farmer group, with the education level of the majority of group members being senior high school (8 people), junior high school (5 people), elementary school (3 people), diploma-3 (1 person), and undergraduate (2 people).

Activities carried out by the farmer group include conducting regular group meetings and meetings with extension workers every month. The Berkat Tani Farmer Group also received assistance from the government in the form of 15 goats in 2018. The assistance continues to grow, and the profits obtained from the development of goats have been used as capital to make a mini-concentrate factory.

The Saung, where members gather to hold monthly meetings, although only in the form of a simple hut, is now also equipped with a fish pond and cultivation of chili plants. Based on the results of discussions among farmer group members at several regular group meetings, they want to develop the empty land around the farmer group hut into an educational tourism park. This is motivated by the fact that many school-age children in Batu Melenggang Village and other areas interact more with gadgets when they come home from school. In addition, children who are still at an early age (3-5 years) have also used gadgets as game tools.

Based on this, the Institute for Community Service of the Universitas Sumatera Utara through the Non-PNBP community service program in the 2020 Regular Mono Year scheme chaired by Prof. Dr. Ir. Elisa Julianti, M.Si., together with Prof. Dr. Ir. Zulkifli Lubis, MApp.Sc, who is a lecturer in the Food Science and Technology Study Program, Dr. Nevy Diana Hanafi, S.Pt., M.Si., from the Animal Husbandry Study Program, and Dr. Nini Rahmawati, S.P., M.Si., from the Agrotechnology Study Program, have held an activity entitled “Making an Agricultural, Livestock and Fisheries Educational Tourism Park in Batu Melenggang Village, Hinai District, Langkat Regency.”

This community service activity is realized in several activities, including using vacant land, fish ponds, and vegetable gardens around the saung as a location for educational tourism parks aimed at early childhood to adolescence. In this activity, assistance was provided in the form of garden construction, a sitting area for children who would visit, as well as a screen house for vegetable planting, training in verticulture vegetable planting, providing vegetable seeds and rack facilities for verticulture cultivation, and training in making concentrate feed for cattle. The activities took place from July to September 2021.

The Kelompok Tani Berkat Tani felt the many benefits they had gained through this activity. Apart from the construction of the Agricultural and Livestock Education Tourism Park area, they also learned how to make concentrate feed by utilizing agricultural waste around them and increasing family income through verticulture vegetable cultivation. They have produced and used this concentrated feed to feed cattle owned by farmer group members, and some of it is sold to farmers outside the farmer group. (RJ)