BI Calls Agricultural Digitization Effectively Pressing The Potential Loss Of Harvest

Illustration (Photo: Doc Antara)

PALEMBANG - Head of the Bank Indonesia Representative Office of South Sumatra Province, R Erwin Soeriadimadja, said that agricultural digitization was effective in suppressing the potential for crop failure.

"I can say that even the success rate of farmers implementing farming (farms) has reached 100 percent," Erwin said as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, July 8.

He said this was based on the achievements achieved by Bank Indonesia's fostered farmers who made shallot clusters and red chilies at Science Techno Park, Ogan Ilir Regency recently.

Inmates using the application on their cell phone can find out the right time to water and provide fertilizer so that the potential for crop failure can be suppressed.

This agricultural digitization is the use of soil and weather sensors, monitoring of fertilization and irrigation through cellular phones and monitoring of land using surveillance cameras (cctv).

Thanks to this effort, onion farmers in February were able to harvest a total of 10 tons from the previous 7 tons.

So far, Bank Indonesia has run a pilot project for onion farming, red chilies and chicken eggs in collaboration with the South Sumatra Regional Research and Development Agency (Balitbangda) and the UPTD STP of Ogan Ilir Regency.

In the future, BI is targeting activities at the Ogan Ilir STP to be imitated by other regencies/cities in South Sumatra to encourage the entry of digitalization in the agricultural sector.

According to him, the digitization of agriculture is very important because it is not only for distribution and marketing aspects but also for pre-production activities, production processes, harvest to post-harvest activities.

That way, South Sumatra agricultural production will increase and prevent crop failure.

For BI, this activity does not lead to efforts to control regional inflation. Since the last five years, three commodities, namely shallots, red chilies and broiler eggs, have always been contributors to inflation in South Sumatra, so BI has made a pilot development project at the Ogan Ilir STP.

"We hope that with the implementation of digital farming, we can boost agricultural production, especially onions and chilies so that it can help price stability and production in South Sumatra," said Erwin.