Feasibility study of Gracilaria culture and performance evaluation of group “Budidaya Rumput Laut Serang Utara” in Serang regency

Abstract

The utilization of marine and fishery potential has the economic prospect for Indonesia. Indonesia waters blessed with abundant and diverse of marine living resources. One of those marine resources is seaweeds. From the various type of seaweed that existed in Indonesia waters, Gracilaria is one of the seaweed with high economical values in Indonesia, especially for the manufacture of agar (jelly). Seaweed is one of commodity that cultivated in the sea and ponds, and become one of international commodities in trading. Serang district is one of the regions where the Gracilaria utilization is not yet optimized. Data in 2010 shows, Serang revenues of approximately 19.25 billion rupiah with the total land used about 500 hectares from 5,000 hectares of total land. 4,500 hectares that remained unutilized with potential revenue of Rp. 101.25 billion, or in other words the lost amount of potential revenue in Serang district is up to 5-fold or 80% of the total potential revenue. This study aims to determine if seaweed species of Gracilaria worth to cultivate and to measure the work performance carried out by the group in their seaweed business development. This study is a study conducted in Serang district which has a potential development of Gracilaria species. In this study, the research used quantitative approach. Data is collected using primary and secondary data. The sampling technique used was purposive method. The sample in this study were all members of the group "Budidaya Rumput Laut Serang Utara" and the customer of business group "Budidaya Rumput Laut Serang Utara". The feasibility study of seaweed cultivation using secondary data sources, while the assessment of the work performance group "Budidaya Rumput Laut Serang Utara" uses primary data with BSC method which based on survey results, as well as secondary data for the assessment of multiple perspectives. The results shows, based on the analysis of the feasibility of seaweed cultivation of Gracilaria, the market and marketing aspects, technical aspects, financial aspects, political and socio-economic aspects, environmental aspects, aspects of human resources and legal aspects gives positive results. While the results of work performance of each BSC perspective shows: (1) The perspective of membership (83.42%), (2) Perspective of Learning and empowerment (71.83%), (3) Internal business process perspective (55.8%), (4) Financial Perspective (39.23%). After multiplication by each of the perspective, the achievement of the overall performance is KBRLSU 63.72%, or still below 80%.