OPTIMALISASI PEMANFAATAN SEKAM PADI MENJADI BRIKET ARANG SEKAM UNTUK MENAMBAH PENDAPATAN PETANI DI DESA SUKAMAJU, JAWA BARAT

Abstract

One effort to increase farmers' income is by processing rice waste into a product that has selling value such as charcoal or briquettes. Husk charcoal has many benefits both in the agricultural world and for industrial needs. Rice husk from abundant harvests if burned causes air pollution that pollutes the environment. Even if it is sold directly, the income from selling the husks is less profitable. Therefore, we provide a solution by making tools to process rice husks into valuable products, namely for burning husks into rice husks charcoal and also final products in the form of briquettes. Charcoal briquettes can be used for cooking, lighting and industrial needs. The activity was begun by holding a meeting with the farming community in Desa Sukamaju, Kecamatan Tambelang, Kabupaten Bekasi to find out the real conditions in the field and gathering necessary data. The next process is to make the rice husk charcoal maker and the charcoal briquete machine. The design of the charcoal maker is carried out to make charcoal by considering the airflow during charring in order to produce a faster time and reduce the spread of smoke, while the design of the charcoal briquette pressing machine is carried out calculating the strength of the required machine components. After the equipment needed was completed, a trial was conducted and the results showed that the charcoal making process takes 20-30 minutes for 10 kg of husks. Meanwhile, the calculation of the components of the pressing machine shows that the pressing machine is safe to use. Furthermore, there was a socialization on the use of this tool to the farmer groups in Sukamaju Village. Then there was training on how to make husk charcoal to briquette products. The last stage was training on how to promote and market it.