Prof.Dr.Ir. Kudang Boro Seminar, MSc The New President of AFITA & The President of ISAI
Prof.Dr.Ir. Kudang Boro Seminar, MSc
The New President of AFITA & The President of ISAI
President of ISAI & AFITA: Information Technology (IT) for Agriculture is not to get rid of for the reason that it is expensive; it must be designed to enable farmers to be the direct users and players in the agribusiness chain.
His consistent interest in the field of agricultural information technology has made him as the president of AFITA (Asian Federation of Information Technology for Agriculture). Prof. Kudang Boro Seminar was formally appointed as the president in the Board Meeting of AFITA, which was one of a series of events held in the International seminar AFITA 2010 on October 4 to 7, 2010 in IICC (IPB International Convention Center).
His role in AFITA began with his participation in the professional organization called HIPI (Indonesian Association of Agricultural Informatics) in 2000, established in the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Bogor in 1998, in which he was appointed as chairman. HIPI, internationally better known as ISAI (Indonesian Society of Agriculture Informatics), also belongs to the bigger organization, i.e., AFITA.
The AFITA Congress is held every two years; the rule is that where it takes place, its chairman will become the president, for which I happened to be trusted, said Prof. Kudang
Asked about the working program of AFITA under his leadership, Prof. Kudang emphasizes that he will continue to seek how to attract the attention of all segments of Indonesian society in order to improve farming with modern and appropriate technologies, particularly information technology as it is used in other areas. Some ways that can and will be conducted by ISAI and AFITA are discussions and sharing of knowledge, experience, scientific studies, research results, and application of technology through the forum of conferences, seminars, workshops, exhibitions, coherent and consistent competitions of national and international scale focused on agricultural improvement through IT solutions and innovations. HIPI (ISAI) always participates in conferences of AFITA in various countries through its representative as a board member of AFITA. HIPI organized a national seminar of HIPI 2009, hosted the International Seminar AFITA 2010, and has also involved in the jury council (as reviewer) for the agricultural web contest in the Department of Agriculture, Republic of Indonesia recently, he said. HIPI (ISAI) is also collaborating with BIOTROP SEAMEO (South East Asian Regional Center for Tropical Biology) in the management and publication of scientific journal called Journal of Information Technology for Natural Resources Management. AFITA alone also manages an international journal called the Journal of Information Technology for Agriculture (JITAG). Both ISAI and AFITA will continue to try to advocate general public, stakeholders of agriculture, including the government for the development and improvement of agriculture through the utilization and efficient use of IT.
“ISAI and AFITA will continue to expand its members both within and outside Asia as associate members. This professionalism forum brings together those who have expertise, interests, ideas, attention and concern for agriculture; they could be the government, observers, or all parties who have interests and relevant professionalism," he said.
In addition, according to Prof. Kudang, it is also necessary to develop a network of resources with various professional organizations, agencies or institutions of research and development (R & D), educational institutions, government agencies, union of employers and industry, farmers’ groups, as well as experts of IT and agriculture to improve the scale and efficient use of resources collectively to achieve the mission and goals of the organization.
Prof. Kudang somewhat disagrees on the argument that the high cost of IT and low education of farmers serve as the justification for not making farmers as end users and player in the agribusiness chain. We (professional organizations and various stakeholders including universities, employers and government) need to work together to help farmers through education, innovation, and accommodations that allow farmers to rise from the object layer and indirect users to the subject layer (players) and direct users of IT and agribusiness. Leaving farmers to remain in a non-strategic and economically disadvantageous layer under the pretext of expensive IT and limited education of farmers has made it difficult for farmers to achieve a healthy business opportunity because they are exploited by intermediary speculators or brokers (who are skillful in using IT and controlling information). The access of farmers to information through the speculators (1) makes them more powerless and dependent on speculators, (2) has greater risk of distorted information to farmers, and (3) introduces extra cost of access for farmers, than if the farmer can become direct users of or direct access to IT and information necessary for their business development.
Of course such condition requires education, innovation and assistance from various parties particularly government, businessmen, academics, and professionals. As an concrete example, the horticultural industry Saung Mirwan get 80% of the whole supply of products from local farmers and only 20% is produced by Saung Mirwan through the green house technology that it has developed. And the local farmers are assisted by Saung Mirwan by accommodating the means of production (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides) and education or training so that local farmers are more efficient in developing their businesses and sell their products at more reasonable prices, to both Saung Mirwan and others, without any profit sharing between Saung Mirwan and the local farmers.
ISAI and AFITA have made efforts and will continue to do so through the media, workshops, and writings to recommend the government and entrepreneurs, especially in the field of IT, make lower and affordable cost of using this national electronic communications channels for the public, including farmers. Logically, if the number of users is getting higher because of covering a wider society, then the income value (of entrepreneurs and government from IT services) is increasing as well. It requires a strong motivation and will (strong push and will) from the government. I have raised this in the workshop in the international conference of AFITA 2010, the Secretary of DETIKNAS (National Council of ICT), Dr. Zaenal A. Hasibuan, while the Chairman of DETIKNAS is the President himself.
The presentations by various IT and agriculture experts in the international conference of AFITA 2010 emphasized the importance of using Internet and web technology, social webs (such as Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, Tweeter etc.) for the media of consultation, promotion and marketing of various products and agricultural technology as well as market opportunities. Interaction through the social web sites has many advantages such as cheap, simple, voluntary, interactive and massive medium of communication. If farmers are accommodated, educated, and motivated to be able to use IT and have direct access to various critical information for their business interests, this will be very helpful to the activities of farmers. Some researchers and presenters through the papers in the conference of AFITA 2010 shares some ideas and experiences of IT usage in the form of cheap and affordable Hand Phones (HP) by farmers in Japan that allow them (on farm and off farm) to access important information about weather, production facilities, price, and know-how or techniques of farming. Even one researcher from IPB (Dr. Wayan Astika) presented and recommended the use of HP with a camera to detect the level of leaf color of rice on the field (on farm) to help with the harvesting process at the right time and target. In Indonesia, hand phones are already widely used reaching the low class people and farmers. If they can be designed and manufactured in such a way as to benefit the farmers, this will certainly be of greater blessings and value-added.
There is even the development of IT in the form of sensors (Micro Sensors, Sensor Field, Field Router) that can be installed on the plants (leaves, fruit, stems, flowers) in paddy fields or gardens (on-farm) and allow on-line and automatic monitoring and control of various points of plants and green houses. Sensors can be connected to different computers in different geographic areas (even between countries) that are connected by a spread network (distributed / federated sensor network). Information and interactions across locations and countries to the agricultural sector are no longer a dream but a reality. This was presented and demonstrated by experts from Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Korea in the Workshop on Sensor Research in the 2010 conference of AFITA. Three experts who were also presenters in the workshop were outside Indonesia, so they used video conference facility (Video Conference) in the workshop.
With the potential and opportunities as discussed above, according to Prof. Kudang, if Indonesia wants to improve agriculture and develop, then the information technology for agriculture should be supported and become a priority of the government programs, if possible the researchers who have innovation and achievements should be given funding and strategically and accommodated to improve innovation and the results can be published and enjoyed by farmers more extensively and significantly.
Further, Prof. Kudang said, "We will be far behind and not competitive with other countries if our farmers use only methods of conventional and traditional agricultural processing" and farmers remain isolated from direct access or users to the technology and information. If all parties work together and support one another, IT actually does not need to be expensive. This requires support from all parties, especially the government, he stressed.
ISAI and AFITA also noticed the increasing trend on the number of producers and the volume of information from time to time on the internet. Yet, what needs more serious attention is the guarantee in the quality of information produced. Otherwise, there will be a lot of information waste (garbage) used a critical and strategic policy makers. The importance of high-quality information is expressed by Prof. Seishi Ninomiya (former President of AFITA) as one of the invited speakers at the AFITA conference of 2010. Poor-quality information will also result in policies and decisions of poor quality (garbage in garbage out). It is important to filter the information / knowledge containing counter knowledge, i.e. knowledge produced or engineered in such a way that it looks as if it is true though it contains many errors and distortions. This was specially presented by Prof. Eriyatno as one of the invited speakers at the AFITA Conference of 2010.
Prof. Kudang said that in the near future (2011) ISAI will also hold a national seminar in Bandung to follow up the results of the previous seminars and conferences, "The next seminar will certainly have to come up with something more concrete and progressive, lessons learned, especially for IPB whose primary competence is in tropical farming ", he hoped. In addition, this national seminar of HIPI 2011 is also intended to be a means of preparation for and participation in the International Conference of AFITA 2012 of agreed by the Board Meeting of AFITA to be held around May 2012 in Taipei, Taiwan.
At the end of the interview with the news team of IPB, Prof. Kudang invites all elements and communities with the interest in agriculture, academic experts and practitioners, employers, governments and observers to participate and strengthen ISAI and AFITA in order to collectively provide best alternative solutions to the problems of agriculture through an information technology-based approach (IT), because in his view it is both nationally and internationally of great importance.
Further information about HIPI (ISAI) is accessible from http://www.deptan.go.id/hipi and FaceBook under the name Indonesian Society of Agriculture Informatics (ISAI).
