Two IPB University Professors Share Innovations at the PNTBH Council of Professors

The Council of Professors (DGB) of IPB University together with the Council of Professors of Legal Entity State Universities (PTNBH) held a Bestaru Lecture with the main theme “Innovation and Higher Education for Rural Development: From Village to Golden Indonesia”, (6/12). 

The event which was held online presented two IPB University professors from the Faculty of Human Ecology (Fema). They were Prof Sofyan Sjaf and Prof Lala M Kolopaking.

In his presentation, Prof Sofyan said that Indonesia was built from a collection of villages with rich agrarian and maritime resources. As many as 89,81 percent (74.961) are villages and 10,19 percent (8.506) are urban villages.

“Villages in Indonesia are identified with pockets of poverty and lack of human resources. To release Indonesia from poverty, it is necessary to understand the structure in the village,” he said.

Prof Sofyan then revealed the facts of rural development in Indonesia, as he wrote in the book Involusi Republik Merdesa. He said that villages are the place or locus of food production and reproduction and agriculture as the basis of the household economy. However, in reality it has never been managed properly.

“Another fact is that young productive workers in rural areas are not interested in agriculture and migrate to cities. The allocation of village funds is not on target,” said the Dean of Fema IPB University. 

“Then, there is no precision data. Without accurate data, planning and implementation fail and there is a conflict of interest of the elite (related to social assistance),” he emphasized again.

As a solution, Prof Sofyan initiated Precision Village Data as an innovation for rural development justice. Precision Village Data is data that has a high level of accuracy and precision to provide a picture of the actual condition of the village / kelurahan. 

“This data is collected, validated, and verified by villagers assisted by outside parties, namely universities at a relatively low cost. Precision Village Data ends data polemics, displays the current condition of the village, can quickly calculate development measures, and the data update time is relatively fast because it involves villagers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Prof Lala M Kolopaking discussed business partnerships in improving the village economy as a digital social innovation. Prof Lala revealed that the digital divide in rural areas still occurs. However, access to internet connectivity in villages is slowly improving.

According to him, solving the digital divide is not enough to deal with the digital inequality gap. Therefore, he emphasized the need for digital social innovation (ISD).

“ISD is the process of developing and applying digital technology to address complex social problems that are difficult to solve without the help of digital technology,” he explained. 

He explained that the main goal of ISD is to improve people’s quality of life through innovative solutions that are effective and sustainable. ISD can solve problems such as climate change adaptation measures and encourage better Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

“I think the ISD approach will have new innovative things,” he said.

Then, Prof Lala continued, ISD can change consumptive economic behavior without being balanced by productive behavior, solving social inequality and poverty, and strengthening the local economy and culture. (MHT) (IAAS/NRA)