JAKARTA – Necessity is the mother of invention. It has been proven in Seuneubok Simpang village of Darul Aman district in Aceh Timur regency, Aceh Province, where villagers have been long complaining over the difficulty of getting 3-kg LPG canisters and once available their prices are so high.
After hearing the villagers’ complain, Social Minister Tri Rismaharini decided to set up a team and establish a cooperation with Bogor University of Agriculture (IPB) to resolve the local energy problem.
For that purpose, the joint team of the social ministry (Kemensos) and IPB conducted a field survey in the village to find out the best solution for the villagers’ energy problem. Finally, they found that the area is abundant with palm fruit wastes, especially fallen and rotten ones. “To avoid being wasted, then it’s better the rotten fruits are used as fuel,” Minister Risma said.
The joint team made an innovation, which is a new type of stoves, specially-designed by the IPB team with simple but effective technology and can be fired with the rotten palm fruits that had been dried. “Due to their simple design and technology, the stoves can be produced locally in the villages. The stove production will then help generate the villages’ economic growth,” Tri Rismaharini said.
The Social Harmony Forum’s (FKS) Seuneubok Simpang Office Head Kafriyadi said that the innovative stoves have been tested since September 2023 and have proven to be satisfactory. “The villagers have no longer paid a high cost of purchasing the 3-kg LPG canisters for everyday cooking. They can use stoves fired with the palm wastes, which are abundant in their areas,” he said.
According to Kafriyadi, the fallen and rotten palm fruits are now collected by the local people to feed their new stoves. They just collect them and dry them before feeding them to the stoves. The simple stoves’ tubes have a diameter of 15 cm and a height of 20 cm. “With just around 25 dried fruits, already enough for one hour cooking. The stoves are very practical, so mothers like them,” said Kafriyadi.
He said that the innovation has become a practical but effective solution for the villagers’ energy problem. “Economically, the stoves help the villagers to save money, and environmentally, the energy solution helps reduce emissions,” he said. (*)
Source: sawitindonesia.com
