Banana Stem Nuggets Win UMS Students 3 National Awards

A student team from the Elementary School Teacher Education (PGSD) Department at Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta (UMS) won three awards at the 2025 Cipta Nusantara Fest, held in Pekanbaru on April 26–27, 2025.

Cipta Nusantara Fest is a national-level essay and business proposal competition, organized through a collaboration between Eduhub Incubator and Universitas Riau. The 2025 edition carried the theme "Innovate for Nusantara."

The PGSD UMS students who took part in the prestigious competition were Maskur Huda, Azzahra Nadia Augustin, Sekar Mustika Arum, and Kurnia Sekar Lestari. They presented a business proposal for banana trunk-based nuggets under the brand name “Nagedebog.”

The Nagedebog team achieved outstanding success by taking home three awards in the culinary category competition: a gold medal for the culinary category, Best Business Proposal Idea, and Most Favorite Poster.

The team leader, Maskur Huda, explained that the idea began when he was conducting research for an innovative business concept. After consulting with a teaching assistant, the idea to make nuggets emerged.

Maskur Huda was holding a trophy and certificate while representing his team during the semifinal and final rounds of Cipta Nusantara Fest 2025 in Pekanbaru, Riau, on April 27, 2025. 

Huda conducted research on various types of plants that could be turned into nuggets. The final choice fell on banana trunks, which are usually discarded as waste. Moreover, market research conducted by Huda supported the idea of banana trunk nuggets.

“We also did market research and found that many people were not yet aware of the potential use of plants in an optimal way. So we wanted to offer something new through nuggets. That’s how we came up with the product,” said Huda when met on Tuesday (3/6).

Team member Azzahra Nadia Augustin said the experimentation process for making banana trunk nuggets took about a month. It included cleaning the banana trunk, soaking it in salt water, mashing the trunk, and combining it with various seasonings.

“We boiled it and then blended it. After that, we added seasonings like garlic, shallots, flavor enhancers, scallions, and eggs,” said Azzahra.

Under the guidance of PGSD UMS lecturer Muhamad Taufik Hidayat, S.Pd., M.Pd., the four second-semester students then prepared a business proposal highlighting the potential of banana trunk-based products. Their vision was to process banana trunks so they wouldn’t be wasted as mere trash. Moreover, based on several journals Huda read, banana trunks may help prevent kidney stones.

“We also plan to include proper processing techniques to preserve the nutrients in the banana trunk,” Huda revealed.

When asked about future plans, Huda and his team expressed a strong desire to further develop their banana trunk nugget. “We really want to continue developing it. It adds to our activities, income, and skills as well,” said the student from Grobogan, Central Java.

Head of UMS Office of Student Affairs, Ir. Ahmad Kholid Alghofari, S.T., M.T., praised the achievements of the four PGSD UMS students. Kholid stated that their creative work reflects the quality and creativity of UMS students, deserving recognition at the national level.

“This further strengthens UMS position as a leading university. This achievement proves that we can compete nationally and internationally,” said Kholid on Tuesday.

The success of Huda and his teammates adds to the student achievement targets set by UMS. It is known that UMS has set a target of achieving 500 national-level and 40 international-level student achievements.

“We constantly support UMS students to participate in achievement events at both national and international levels, not just in academics, but also in non-academic fields,” Kholid emphasized.

Writer: Gede Arga Adrian

Editor: Fika Annisa Sholihah

Translator: Farizal Luqman Majid