IPB’s application ‘Digitani’ deemed helpful for millennial farmers

IPB University’s rector, Prof Dr Arif Satria expresses that numerous countries all over the world has applied modern agriculture through 4.0 technologies. Therefore, Prof Arif asserts that Indonesia needs to wake up and plan towards a new era.

“Our bonus demography is right before us, if we do not prepare them, then the coming generation will only stand as a burden”, he proclaims during the opening of Seminar Nasional Hasil Penelitian dan Pengabdian kepada masyarakat held by Lembaga Pengabdian kepada Masyarakat (LPPM) IPB University on Thursday (5/12) in IPB International Convention Center, Bogor.

“Moving forward, to ensure national food security, research on substitutive products and new material needs to be boosted. Therefore, we need to prepare the precise technology as fast as possible” Prof Arif Satria adds.

Declining populations of farmers looks to be another problem in realizing national food security. For that reason Prof Arif Satria suggests that this bonus demography happening in Indonesia should be utilized optimally. As an effort to utilize agriculture technology development, IPB University has released the application IPB Digitani, to be used by millennial farmers. He expresses that the existence of IPB Digitani is very important to farmers.

IPB Digitani facilitates farmers for consultations or discussions online with experts be it professionals or agriculture instructors. Other facilities include agricultural articles, newsletter regarding agriculture, various agricultural information in video format, marketplace platform, land monitoring and price portal.

This seminar was attended by 398 participants including researchers, lecturers, students of IPB University whom are beneficiaries of PPM fiscal year 2019 and other attendees of various other organizations. The project leader, Prof Dr Eko Sri Wiyono states that LPPM IPB University is always developing programs to strengthen Penelitian dan Pengabdian kepada Masyarakat (PPM) to increase capacity and quality of PPM. Such activities are done to achieve IPB University’s vision to be the leading university in strengthening its citizen’s dignity through higher education in agricultural, marine, and tropic biosciences including biomedics fields.

The process of quality assurance and performance of PPM IPB University is an ongoing one, one of them being Seminar Nasional Hasil PPM 2019. In this national seminar, LPPM IPB University collaborates with IPB Postgraduate school in creating schematics for Magister to Doctorate education to create excellent graduates (PMDSU), Doctorate Dissertation Program (PDD), and Magister Research Thesis (PTM).

“This collaboration with postgraduate school is important remembering research schemes are being pushed towards guidance of human resources. In this seminar, LPPM IPB University also pledged towards a guarantee of research quality with non-Kemenristekditi funding such as Badan Pengelola Dana Perkebunan Kelapa Sawit (BPDPKS) and Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP),” he added.

As much as 373 titles from PPM IPB University and 25 titles from PPM non IPB University will be published with 241 titles presented orally and 161 titles in poster form. These titles are grouped into 6 fields including food, energy, natural and environmental resources, biology and health, social, economy and humanities, and technology and engineering. This includes PMDSU-PTM-PDD and LPDP-BPDPKS groups. IPB University’s rector appreciates LPPM IPB’s efforts in accommodating researchers lecturer and student circles in supporting community devotions. (RA) (IAAS/RCD)

Keyword: LPPM IPB, IPB University, PPM IPB, pertanian, IPB Digitani