Rural Sustainable Agriculture: Uplifting both Productivity and Environmental Protection - an Alumna Story of Nurdahalia Lairing

“I was only a village-girl, coming from a rural area, Enrekang district, South Sulawesi province. Little did I knew there were many scholarships and opportunities to study abroad. I remember that was in 2005, I was working for an Emergency Response on Tsunami-disaster in Aceh. I was selected for the NFP-master program at Van Hall Larenstein (VHL), the university of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. This opportunity had changed this village-girl, given a broaden horizon, open-up my critical thinking, and getting to know more about rural development.” (Lia, Indonesia),

Nurdahalia Lairing or known as Lia is now teaching at Universitas Muhammadiyah Enrekang (UNIMEN), South Sulawesi. She is also the Lead-Researcher at the Research Centre for Communication, Social Ecological Learning and Sustainable Environment under the UNIMEN. The research centre has been handling a training course called as Design and Development of a Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS) for rural farmers in Enrekang to reach broader information and knowledge about sustainable agriculture. The prominent idea is to increase farmer access to rural extension services using an online platform, targeting rural communities in South Sulawesi to reach their optimum productivity and at the same time encouraging to preserve the environment. The project has been working since 2018 under the collaboration between Van Hall Larenstein (VHL) University of Applied Science (HVHL) and UNIMEN via the Research Centre for Communication, Social Ecological Learning and Sustainable Environment.