No Need To Wait 2 Weeks, IPB Innovation Can Test Instant Agricultural Quality

Illustration of agricultural products (@lovepik)

BOGOR The length of laboratory testing and high cost of quality inspection are often obstacles for farmers and exporters in meeting global market standards.

Responding to this problem, Professor of the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, IPB University, Prof. I Wayan Budiastra, offered a breakthrough by developing a faster, cheaper, and competitive quality examination technology.

For more than two decades, Prof. Budiastra has been pursuing non-destructive technology research, including Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR), ultrasonic technology, and Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS).

"This innovation was born from the need to meet the demands of quality in the global market, shorten the time of analysis, as well as reduce the cost and use of chemicals," said Prof. Budiastra in his statement, Sunday, September 21.

So far, the quality check of agricultural products still relies on chemical methods in laboratories with sampling systems. This process can take up to two weeks, costing IDR 200,000 Rp 500,000 per sample.

According to Budiastra, the technology he has developed is designed so that it can be accessed by farmers, cooperatives, industry, and exporters. The focus of the research is directed at leading export commodities such as mango, mangosteen, coffee, nutmeg, pepper, and palm oil.

Research results show that NIR is able to predict the content of sugar and acid in mangoes, caffeine levels in coffee, to high levels of palm fat. In addition, Budiastra also designs UV-VIS-NIR-based portable devices to determine the maturity of palm fruit in the garden. This tool can achieve 100 percent accuracy with the help of artificial intelligence based on machine learning," he said.

Ultrasonic technology and EIS also show great potential in predicting the internal quality of thick skined fruit, although still in the prototype stage. Recent research is even reviewing the use of sensors for fresh fruit bunch sorting in the crude palm oil (CPO) industry.

It doesn't stop there, Budiastra is also developing innovations in electromagnetic wave-based processing. One of them is ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE) which is able to accelerate the extraction of active compounds up to 24 times faster. The Greenhouse Effect (GHE) Dryer has proven to be able to accelerate the process of stealing it to only 12 days of the best quality.

He hopes that this innovation will have policy support so that it can be mass produced and implemented in the field. With the application of this technology, the competitiveness of superior commodities will increase, as well as boost the income of farmers and small industries," he concluded.