<![CDATA[The dependence of highland vegetable farmers on middlemen in Margaluyu Tourism Village,Pangalengan District, Bandung Regency, Indonesia, constrains farmers’ bargaining power and limitsthe development of local economic value chains. Despite the village’s considerable geographical and agricultural potential, agricultural production has not been optimally integrated with tourismactivities. The main challenges faced by the community partners include limited value addition toagricultural products, insufficient integration of agricultural production and tourism services,inadequate agritourism business management, and limited direct and digital marketing capabilities.This Community Partnership Program (Program Kemitraan Masyarakat [PKM]) aimed toimplement an Integrated Educational Agritourism model to establish new value chains throughproduct diversification, integrated business management, and direct digital marketing. The programwas designed to connect agricultural production, educational tourism experiences, businessmanagement, and direct marketing to strengthen farmers’ bargaining positions and reduce theirdependence on middlemen. Implementation consisted of five stages: socialization and needsassessment, training, technology and innovation adoption, mentoring and evaluation, andsustainability strengthening. Activities included focus group discussions (FGDs), local potentialmapping, training in value-added production and educational agritourism, business management andeducational tour package development, digital marketing training, and the development of a pilotinterpretive trail in a chili plantation. The pilot trail comprised an entrance gate, a cultivationlearning area, a chili-picking area, garden and rice-field photo spots, a farmer storytelling pavilionand weighing area, a photo spot overlooking the lake, and an exit area. Training evaluation involving25 participants revealed an increase in the mean score from 1.20 to 4.00 across the three trainingdimensions. These results indicate a substantial improvement in participants’ understanding of thetraining materials, as reflected in the shift from predominantly low scores in the pre-test to thehighest score in the post-test. Specifically, the program enhanced participants’ initial knowledge ofvalue-added product development, educational agritourism activities, business management,educational tour package development, and digital marketing. These findings suggest that anintegrated approach combining capacity building, practical training, and supporting infrastructurecan strengthen the community’s readiness to develop agricultural resources into value-addedproducts and educational tourism experiences. Further mentoring and implementation monitoringare needed to determine whether these improvements in understanding translate into increased directsales, stronger bargaining power, and more sustainable local economic benefits.]]>
