Working the earth: One of Sarino’s employees stirs through a pile of compost.Working the earth: One of Sarino’s employees stirs through a pile of compost.
Setting up and running a business doesn’t always require a lot of capital. Sometimes all that’s needed is strength of will, high spirits and a willingness to work hard.
This attitude has proved true for Sarino, a 52-year-old resident of Bulak Santri kampung in Pondong Pucung, Tangerang, who started his own business as a compost maker in 1999.
Sarino left his hometown of Semarang, Central Java, in 1994 to try his luck in the capital. He found none – his low level of education meant no one would give him a job. He fared no better after moving out to Tangerang. He was out of work for years.
But in the turmoil of 1998, when the capital was paralyzed by riots and job seeking was not an option, he came up with the quixotic idea of setting up a small business in compost production.
Despite the economic crisis that swept through the region that year, Sarino proved himself to be a tough man, never giving up once his decision was made. He was determined to set up and run the business he had dreamed of, and had the full support of his family in doing so.
Of course that there was still that major obstacle standing in the way between him and his dream of his business: He had nothing – no cash, no assets – but his determination to make his plans come to fruition, his high hopes of being able to support his family and a bit of useful knowledge.
As a child, he had the good luck of being able to attend Sekolah Rakyat (equivalent to the elementary school level of today) during the Sukarno era. The education he received there gave him solid practical knowledge about natural science and biology – knowledge he could turn to his advantage when it come to making compost.
“I learned these sciences at school. Under the Old Order era, we were lucky because Sukarno provided a one-hectare plot of land for people to learn farming,” recalls the father of one.
Before he started his business in 1999, he had realized that, at that time, homemade compost was not something you came across in places such as Jakarta and Tangerang. Looking around, he saw that no one had started a business in compost making. This, he saw, meant there was a gap in the market, and his intuition told him that his business idea held good prospects for the future.
Built from decay: Sarino sits with sacks of the organic compost his Tangerang-based company makes.Built from decay: Sarino sits with sacks of the organic compost his Tangerang-based company makes.
Ten years later, his intuition has been proved right. Now running his own business, bearing the name Bumi Mina Tani (which literally means the “business land of the farmer”), in Tangerang, Sarino employs several people from his neighborhood to help him as he goes about making and selling his compost.
Sarino and his team of employees together produce hundreds of sacks of compost a day, which they then have distributed across the Greater Jakarta area, Batam, Lampung and Bangka.
He regularly receives orders from buyers in this region to the tune of between 300 and 350 sacks of compost every week. He sells one sack for between Rp 9000 and Rp 10,000.
Sarino proudly claims that he was the first compost maker in the Greater Jakarta area and Tangerang to use of manure, goat dung and sugar cane waste to make compost.
“To my knowledge, no one here ever made use of dried manure to make compost before, not until I started up my business.”
He therefore advises people to be savvy when they buy compost as, he says, many of the types of compost produced in areas in Jakarta and Tangerang are mere imitations of his products.
So what is it about the composition of his compost that sets it apart from that of his competitors?
Sarino is quick to point out that, unlike the types of compost sold in many stores, his compost products are free from chemical substances.
“My product is made up purely of dead leaves and sugar cane waste, dried manure and burned top
soil,” he says. “I only use natural substances.”
He keeps the dried manure and sugar cane waste in sacks for years to ensure they become completely decayed. The reason for this, he says, is that the longer they are left to rot, the better the quality of the compost.
Another factor that sets him apart from other compost makers, Sarino adds, is that he does not use burnt wood in his compost – for good reason, he claims.
“The use of burnt wood in compost has no effect at all on the quality of the compost,” he says.
“People often use it only so that the compost can look black.”
The color of compost is often associated with its quality, and black compost is often the best quality – hence why many compost makers add charcoal to their compost to influence the color.
But as Sarino points out, you don’t need charcoal to make it black. The “recipe” he uses to make his compost, and the methods and ingredients he employs, are more than enough to make his black – even blacker than compost made using charcoal.
But don’t just go by the color, he says. Try the stuff.
“Leave the decayed composition I use for just two days,” he says, “and you will see the results.” Setiono Sugiharto
Post Date : 16 Juni 2009
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