Let’s Count Fish Seeds Quickly and Accurately
Fish farmers are now able to save time and effort in calculating fish seeds they will sell. This is possible after some researchers at the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science (FPIK) IPB have successfully assembled an appropriate technology called Fry Counter or fish seed counter.
Fry Counter is an answer to the problems often expressed by the entrepreneurs of fish seeds in the post-harvest handling. This is also the background of the research on Fry Counter.
"The research on Fry Counter was motivated by the resulted observation of production activities in catfish hatcheries which are still inefficient. The common counting of fish seeds during the larvae period is still manual, although the number calculated is in tens to hundreds of thousands of seeds," said Ayi Rachmat, S. Pi, M. Si, who did the research with Prof. Dr. Ir. Indra Jaya, M.Sc., and Mohammed Faisal Sagala, S.Pi.
Ayi Rakhmat said that with manual counting, it takes one to two days for the farmers to count 50 thousand fish seed with the workforce of three to four people and the average work of five hours per day.
50 thousand is the smallest number that the farmers can do. So if the fish reaches hundreds of thousands, how long does it take to count? What is the cost?
Thus we can conclude that this manual counting has several weaknesses, among others, a) a long process of calculation – taking several working days for a single delivery; 2) absorbing many labor (although this is good in terms of reducing unemployment, but will reduce fish farmer’s income itself because the fish is usually relatively cheap); 3) stressful fish because of the treatment given to it and this will facilitate the entry of germs.
"To overcome this calculation problem, the Department of Marine Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science, IPB developed this fish seed calculating tool to help fish farmers, especially the catfish farmers in the production process. As it is known, Indonesia is a big producer of freshwater fish and desperately needs an effective post-harvest handling." explained Ayi Rakhmat.
Fry CounterTM product (Figure 1 and 2) was registered as an RI patent with the Number of Certificate: P00200300627 on December 8, 2003.
Figure 1. Fry Counter
Figure 2. Setting of Fish Counting with Fry Counter
After the tests on Fry CounterTM, satisfactory results were obtained, in which on average the experiments with 50 replications on 50 fish obtained an average value of 49.29 with an average error of -1.2 fish seed.
Ayi mentions several advantages of Counter Fry in his research findings, namely 1) counting faster than the manual method, 2) the first product – no similar product on the market, so it has a great chance to be the market leader for a similar product in the end, 3) reducing labor, thus increasing profit for the entrepreneur.
The segment targeted by Fry Counter is more directed to the home industry scale or small-medium businesses (UKM), hatchery enterprise, fish seed traders and general practitioners in fishery sectors who calculate fish seeds. The selling price per unit of Fry Counter is Rp 4.75 million. – (four million seven hundred fifty thousand rupiahs).
Fry Counter Specifications made in FPIK IPB are microcomputers-based, 8 counting gates, low-power (50-60 Watt), 50mA (micro amperes) when it is active, power supply of AC 220V (volts), DC 12V Ni-Cad, LCD Display (999 999), Buzzer Indicator (active mode), reset mode, portable, weight of 4 Kg.
A truly appropriate technology isn’t it? Therefore, let us empower this nation with domestically-made technology. (mtd)
