Jakarta. Indonesia is seeing a rise in the #KaburAjaDulu ('Just Run Away First') trend among its youth who are desperate to move abroad to find better opportunities. While others want to escape Indonesia, many people choose the #produktifdinegerisendiri path or to be productive in one's home country. These people have even helped boost their hometown's economy and create jobs for the locals.

Meet Lia Nuryanah. She is an agronomy and horticulture department graduate of the IPB University. Since graduating, she has had many initiatives aimed at improving the agricultural sector of her hometown Cikondang in West Java. This is her story -- as seen in alumni IPB pedia website.

Growing up in a farmer's family, Lia had struggled financially. However, she did not give up and managed to secure the government-funded Bidikmisi scholarship and eventually graduated from IPB University.

Lia has worked day and night with the locals to develop the local red ginger and coffee farming. She even struck a deal with Bintang Toedjoe, a herbal medicine producer that is part of the pharma giant Kimia Farma. She even helped the village develop its very own specialty cofee product, the Cikko Coffee, as well as organic fertilizers. These initiatives become a boon to local farmers and small businesses, thus spurring the regional economy.

In 2021, Lia received enough public support to run in the village head election.

"Some people doubted me because I was too young. They also doubted whether it would be fit for a woman to take over the leadership role," Lia said.

It turns out that Lia secured a landslide victory in the 2021 elections with 405 votes. At the age of 28, Lia became Cikondang's village head. This local leadership gave Lia room to design better policies to grow the village's agricultural sector.

She had told the villagers to go into farming: be it that of large or small scale. To Lia, people can start their farming journey from their yards by planting agricultural crops in polybags.

Agrotourism development had played a huge part during her tenure. Lia introduced cassava as an alternative food to the staple rice. She also oversaw the development of the so-called "gucaksi", a liquid sugar made from low-calorie cassava peel. The use of cassava peels can help reduce waste from cassava processing.

"We provide training and receive visits as part of Gucaksi education. We established Saung Cassava as a container for processing cassava-based products. Here, we accompany from production to marketing. The village-owned businesses also plays a role in accommodating the harvest," explained Lia.

Lia's journey shows that staying and actively contributing to one's home country can produce great results. Her story shows that young people can be agents of change who bring hope and improve the welfare of society.

Add as a preferred source on Google +