Many Academicians Do Not Conduct Research Programs Optimally
No one denies that university is the most potential institution to develop the technology in Indonesia. "There are about 160 thousand of functional academicians who are capable in conducting both basic and applied research programs for multiple disciplines, " said Minister of Research and Technology of Republic of Indonesia (Menristek), Prof. Dr. Gusti Muhammad Hatta in Open Session of 48th Bogor Agricultural University Anniversary, Wednesday, 9 November 2011. This Open Session was held to listen to the Scientific Oration on “Inovasi Pertanian untuk Kesejahteraan Rakyat” (Agricultural Innovation for People’s Welfare), " by the Minister of Research and Technology.
But a lot of academicians do not produce research results optimally that fit of both the academic dimension in meeting the national technology, regional or local. The number of scientific publications produced by the academic community of Indonesia is much lower compare to the product of the scientists of Singapore and Malaysia. Today Israel is the country that allocates the world’s largest research funds, which is about 4 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Most of the funds are donated by the private sectors.
Similarly, the intensity of research and development (R&D) for agriculture in Indonesia is also quite low. "The intensity of agricultural R & D is calculated based on the allocation of government funding to GDP, just 0.22 percent, and the financial support of R & D private companies to be added, the total amount would increased into 0.27 percent," said Prof. Gusti. He encouraged researchers to develop innovations that fit to the needs of society, not solely based on basic or applied science. Innovation is expected to be simple and applicable, so that farmers can directly adopt it.
With regard to agricultural land, Prof. Gusti expressed that only about 18 percent of the Indonesian agricultural land is fertile, the rest belonging to marginal land or sub-optimal. "The government is trying to stop the of conversion of fertile agricultural land for other purposes. In addition, the government also trying to inventory the technologies or innovations that will assist to process the marginal land to be productive, "explained Prof. Gusti.
With regard to the current trend that mostly Indonesian researchers prefer to have their career in foreign countries rather than in their own country, Rector of IPB, Prof. Herry Suhardiyanto, M.Sc. said, the University has implemented joint research that provides opportunities academcians to implement their scientific researchers abroad as well as in the home country. "Joint Research has become our policy to appreciate the academicians of Bogor Agricultural University for their works, " said Rector. The number of innovative technologies produced by the University are relatively high, and they tend to dominate the most prospective of the innovative works version Bussiness Innovation Centre and the Ministry for Research and Technology for the last 4 (four) consecutive years. Rector expected that the innovative work makes a valuable contribution to the advancement of technology, especially in agriculture. (Wied).
