The Surabaya DPRD Encourages Urban Agriculture Through Smart Farming

Illustration of smart farming (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The leadership of the Surabaya DPRD encourages the local city government to strengthen urban agriculture and food security through smart farming or agriculture based on the Internet of Things (IoT).

Deputy Chairman of the Surabaya DPRD Reni Astuti in Surabaya, Sunday, said that the development of the concept of urban agriculture based on smart farming in the City of Heroes requires support from the Surabaya City Government (Pemkot).

"This smart farming can be developed in accordance with the potential of Surabaya and the potential of human resources. We have many campuses that can be involved in urban agriculture or urban farming," Rani said, quoted by Antara, Sunday.

Reni assessed that as a metropolitan city, Surabaya has a myriad of potentials for smart farming development. Especially in the era of the industrial revolution 4.0 the use and empowerment of aspects of technology, information, and communication became increasingly massive in terms of developing the agricultural sector to be more advanced.

According to him, the role of universities is important apart from collaboration, the role of universities through research, to the provision, processing, and innovations of these technologies as well as encouraging the development of the agricultural sector during the IoT period and producing outstanding agricultural graduates in their fields.

The smart farming era, said Reni, was related to how farmers received weather information, timing and planting season, right harvest time, providing irrigation water as needed, good and correct cultivation methods, resulting in high production.

The PKS legislator said that the city of Surabaya, which also has many villages with the concept of urban farming, is considered suitable for implementing smart farming in optimizing planting and gardening urban communities and creating digital farmers.

By adopting smart farming, it also encourages the spirit of gardening and farming for many people with limited city land so that the harvest can continue to be optimized and sustainable.

Talking about food security, this Surabaya woman figure also supports the realization of sovereignty, independence, and food security in order to fulfill the availability and adequacy of basic needs for public consumption.

Moreover, the pattern of cooperation between regions can also be established in order to meet the needs of food sources while at the same time supporting the sustainability of the agricultural sector in general.

"It is also important for Surabaya to support other areas in East Java that produce food so that they can cooperate with the city government so that their products can be purchased as a form of Surabaya's efforts to support agriculture," he said.