DYNAMICS OF PORANG COMMODITY DEVELOPMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF PRODUCER AND CONSUMER

Abstract

Background. Porang tubers have the potential to have high economic value, because they
contain glucomannan which is good for health and can be easily processed into food
ingredients to meet daily needs (Sholiha et al, 2020). For example, the production of porang
in East Java in 2009 only reached 600-1000 tons of dry chips while the industry needed around
3,400 tons of dry chips (Wijanarko 2012 & Maharani 2022). This need cannot be met because
in Indonesia porang has not been cultivated intensively and is still very dependent on natural
potential, the planting area is still limited and there are no complete cultivation guidelines
(Hidayat, 2021). In addition, it is also because not many people know about it, the age of the
plant is relatively longer than other types of tubers and crops (Sumarwoto, 2004). However, in
Indonesia, the dominant porang-derived products are rice, shirataki noodles and flour (Suroso,
2016). However, there are still many farmers who are hesitant to plant porang in large
quantities (Kurniati et al, 2021). This is because farmers do not know the real economic
benefits of porang cultivation in their farming business (Iqbal et al, 2020). Especially when the
Covid-19 pandemic hit plus experiencing unfavorable weather, many local community garden
products that should have been harvested became crop failures (Fadhil et al, 2021).
Meanwhile, the dynamics in the consumer aspect lies in the problem of promoting Porang
derivative products which have not been intensively carried out by the Porang industry
(Andika, 2022). In addition, porang-derived products still have little variation compared to
other tuber-derived products, such as cassava, sweet potatoes, taro, etc. (Mahirdini & Afifah,
2016). As said by David (2011) that in business it is not only concerned with the producer
aspect, but it is necessary to pay attention to the consumer aspect, so that production results
have a definite market, so that the strategy made in developing a product is complete.

Objectives. Beginning with analyzing how the level of profit from farming at the level of porang
farmers. Many studies related to porang state that the profits of porang farmers are far greater
than the profits from other tuber commodities, as stated by Hamdan (2020) that porang
production can reach 6-10 tons per hectare with tuber prices in the range of 10-13 thousand
per kg and bulbil prices can reach 200-300 thousand per kg, with production costs ranging
from 80-90 million per hectare. However, the porang product itself has not been widely circulated at the consumer level, in line with the results of research by Subagiana et al (2022)

and Supriyadi (2021) that porang-derived products are still relatively rare at the end-consumer
level. For this reason, it is necessary to study the dynamics of porang farming at the farmer
level. From a consumer perspective, it is necessary to examine consumer preferences for
derivative products produced from the porang plant itself, which then determines the strategy
for developing porang commodities.
Methods. Quantitative descriptive analysis in this study is an analysis of porang farming
conducted in Ponorogo Regency, East Java Province, and Sinjai Regency, North Sumatra
Province in 2021. Porang farmers are determined by snowballing at least 5 farmers with
criteria when conducting the study, farmers are still doing porang farming . While the analysis
of consumer preferences was carried out through online interviews with a questionnaire guide
on respondents with the criteria of women and men who are already working, age range above
25 years and income above the Regional Minimum Wage (UMR) in their respective regions or
in rupiah above Rp. 2.5 million per month, as many as 64 respondents. Then, several
alternative strategies were determined in developing the porang commodity. The internal and
external factors of the development of the porang commodity were obtained from key
respondents consisting of: porang farmers, the porang industry, namely Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) at the household industry level, and consumers of porang derivative
products who regularly buy porang rice.
Results. The results show that porang farming can provide profits of up to 3-5 times the cost
of production, with a range of up to IDR 100-200 million per hectare. This makes people
increasingly have the opportunity for high market demand at the community level. From the
results of consumer preferences, when choosing rice, people have taken into account the health
content in it, both in terms of color, taste, uniformity, cleanliness, aroma/fragrance,
brand/bran, packaging, storability to price.
Conclusion. So, from both perspectives it is concluded that in developing the porang
commodity strategy a partnership between farmers and the private sector and the government
is needed by utilizing available resources, besides that, socialization and promotion need to be
carried out more intensely among the general public, because porang products have added
health value and are friendly environment, the opportunity to sell in the market is greater.