Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto: It's Time For Millennial Farmers To Apply Smart Agriculture

KLATEN - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto had the opportunity to review agricultural locations developed by millennial farmers with the concept of smart farming through the use of technology, during a working visit in Klaten, Central Java, September 24.

The Millennial Smart farming Program is an ecosystem for millennial empowerment through fostering and developing a digital agricultural ecosystem (IoT) from upstream to downstream and increasing village financial inclusion.

This program aims to implement smart agriculture by implementing agricultural digitization with the Internet of Things (IoT), forming an agricultural ecosystem by opening market access to farmers, so that farmers' income is guaranteed and optimizes banking financial inclusion in villages, and strengthens millennial farmer institutions carried out by various stakeholders.

"The Millennial Smart farming Program is expected to increase the productivity of agricultural products in order to improve food security and national economic recovery as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto also took the time to talk with one of the millennial farmers named Hartoyo. Hartoyo himself previously worked in an office in Jakarta, but now he is very much focused on agriculture because he admits that the income he gets from here is greater.

Hartoyo explained to Coordinating Minister Airlangga about automatic agricultural mechanization using applications installed on his tablet and solar power which he had used for three months.

Weather sensor applications and tools are made by a national startup company. Before the digital farming system was widely used by millennial farmers, the startup initiated the Smart Farming 4.0 concept which became the first winner of the Hermes Award for the Startup category at the Hannover Messe 2020.

The Smart Farming 4.0 concept provides a way out for farmers in facing the challenges of climate change. The trick is to use sensors and applications, which provide information that can help farmers increase agricultural production, including reducing the use of fertilizers and water.

This concept is the basis for creating a mobile application based on agricultural technology to help record farming systems, select cultivation guidelines, as well as good agricultural handling and processing. Improving agricultural efficiency more easily and efficiently but can produce maximum harvests, besides that farmers can also easily get access to the right partners and markets.

Furthermore, Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto together with the Deputy Regent of Klaten and the Director of Institutional Relations of BNI tried to grow rice using the Treventer, an automatic planting machine. Coordinating Minister Airlangga also talked with women farmers who are planting traditional crops. At that time, Coordinating Minister Airlangga asked about agricultural developments and also explained government assistance, especially People's Business Credit (KUR), that farmers could take to further develop their agriculture.

“The result with this system can be between 6-7 tons per hectare, in two years it can be harvested twice. The price of unhusked rice is currently close to IDR 5 thousand, because of Srinau (a modification of the original Klaten Rojo Lele rice). If all of them use technology, it is hoped that productivity will be even higher, especially since they already use automatic machines for planting," concluded Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto.