Transforming Agriculture with “Baku”
By Ratih Nawangwulan
With 7.7 billion people living all across the globe, agriculture takes its throne as the world’s most important food provider. It’s not only a science or an art of food producing, agriculture also provides income for over one billion people in the world. We call them ‘farmers’, those who wake up at dawn and sometimes stay working until the sun sets to make sure cows and sheep are well-fed, and the plants are watered enough to continue the cycle throughout the night.
But food production must keep pace with population growth and distribution methods. This is an enormous agricultural and political change, as stated by National Geographic. Not to mention the threat of climate change that already had observable effects on the environment and agriculture. In addressing these challenges, innovative approach must consider new technological and institutional options but also the changes in behavioral responses to climate change and related solutions over time.
Indonesia, who is blessed with abundant natural resources, has now looked into digitalisation of agriculture. Currently, there are four digital initiatives being developed in the strategic sector of agriculture, namely precision agriculture (increasing productivity using digital application), digital agriculture hub (digital platform to connect supply chain stakeholders), microfinance agriculture (introducing microfinance digital application to stakeholders), and digital crop auction (using digital application to hold an auction for crops). These initiatives are part of the Indonesian preparation as Energy Digital Asia in 2020.
The question is, who will drive this digital transformation in farming system?
It has been long known that young people are creative, resilient, curious and hungry to engage in creating the future. In regards to technology adoption, technologies are particularly impacting young people, fundamentally changing their lifestyle. Thus it is important to identify the needs of the younger generation to understand new uses of technology in society and how it may help particularly in farming technology.
According to the Ministry of Female Empowerment and Child Protection of the Republic of Indonesia in 2018, Indonesia is dominated by millennials born between 1988-2000 as much as 33,75%. It is a huge potential number for the ongoing development! These tech-savvy people can tap into this opportunity, closing the gap between farming and digital technology, which is the reason why “Baku” is here.
We are a completely youth-driven startup collaborating with many experts in the field. Our main purpose is to accelerate the world transformation to sustainable foods. By combining design thinking and technology approach, we want to tackle the challenge of the increasing demand of food by optimizing the supply chain through smart farming. Stay tuned for our upcoming breakthrough technology!