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Blogsia - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and First Lady Iriana visited Telaga Sari Village in Kurik District, Merauke Regency, South Papua Province, on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.
They observed the simulation of using drone technology for fertilizer distribution over 40,000 hectares of rice fields.
The drone fertilizer simulation is part of the smart farming concept implementation. Smart farming utilizes the Internet of Things (IoT), where all decisions are executed via the internet.
“To facilitate this, we developed the programming language on Android so it can be accessed on smartphones,” said Roni, Head of the Agricultural Training Center, quoted from the Presidential Secretariat press release on Wednesday (24/7/2024).
In addition to using drones for fertilizer distribution, Roni mentioned that smart farming offers numerous tangible benefits for farmers.
These benefits include remote control, automatic weather stations, monitoring air temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind direction, wind speed, sunlight, and fluctuations.
“With smart farming, we manage irrigation based on soil moisture control, with a threshold of 30 percent. Below that means the soil is dry and needs watering. Above 30 percent means the soil is wet and doesn't need watering. Similarly, fertilizer execution is programmed and can be controlled via a smartphone,” he explained.
During the visit, Jokowi and Iriana also had the opportunity to engage directly with farmers regarding the benefits and challenges of implementing this technology.
They appreciated the collaborative efforts between the central government, local governments, and farmers in using technology to address agricultural challenges in South Papua.
Tenang Wibowo, a farmer who has experienced significant improvements after adopting smart farming, shared his insights. Through this concept, he and other farmers achieved better agricultural yields.
“Alhamdulillah, with this initiative, we learned and saw a difference in production. Previously, we could only get 80-90 sacks per hectare, but now, with smart farming, it has increased to 120-130 sacks,” Tenang said.
Tenang also expressed his hope that the government would pay more attention to irrigation needs for farmers, as the current irrigation systems are insufficient.
“Alhamdulillah, there is already irrigation, but our need here is for around 1,000 hectares. Hopefully, in the future, all farmers can benefit from it,” Tenang added.
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