Cashew Products as the Future of the Nduma Luri Community in West Sumba

The Nduma Luri community lives in Umalulu Village, East Sumba. In the 1990s, the New Order government (Orba) supported a cashew project, resulting in a high market price for the product. This support included the provision of tools, fertilizer, and pesticides, as well as the promise that the land used for cashew cultivation would be owned by the cultivators with a Freehold Certificate (SHM). The people of Sumba were enthusiastic about planting cashew trees. However, cashews are a commodity with fluctuating market value. Price changes, including price drops, are caused by many factors, including market demand, weather changes affecting harvest yields, and other factors. The price decline during the New Order era led farmers to choose to harvest cashews while they were still green and sell them raw. Over time, selling cashews raw became a common practice there.

The Nduma Luri Community's initiative aims to increase the selling value of cashew nuts. This involves processing and packaging them. Because cashew processing is a new skill for them, cashew processing training was conducted to build their members' capacity. The training covered material preparation, sorting, processing, and packaging. Thirty members of the Nduma Luri Community participated in the training. To support production, the Nduma Luri Community also built a production house and procured supporting equipment. The cashew nuts are packaged in 500-gram packages.

From cashew processing activities, the Nduma Luri Community succeeded in increasing the selling value of the product. The resulting increase was around 138%, with the price of raw cashews in the local market being Rp10.500 per kilogram while the price of processed cashews was Rp100.000 per kilogram. The cashew processing initiative by the Nduma Luri Community holds an economic potential of Rp7.475.000.000 per year. This calculation comes from considering the community's ability to process and market 299 tons of cashew products. The results increased by Rp4.485.000.000 compared to selling raw cashews. In terms of social aspects, this program impacted 19.137 people with details: 7.500 men, 6.853 women, and 4.784 young people.