CIWIDEY, West Java, Indonesia, June 24 (IPS) – Seems to be business as usual at Al-Ittifaq pesantren, the local term for an Islamic boarding school. Yadi and Rezki, both 18 years old, participate subuh, praying before dawn, in the local mosque. After a religious meditation session, together with the santrisor students, both doing scientific research in a pre-dawn class for about 30 minutes.
After the course is over, students know where to go and what to do. They took pickaxes, shovels and machetes and walked together to the school farm. The ustadzor teacher, divide them into groups and give instructions.
Soon the students looked less like learners but more like young farmers working the land. “This is part of our classroom lessons. We do this every day,” said Yadi, who is busy planting seeds. “I am growing green onions. But my friends are harvesting it on the other side of this farm. “
The pesantren The environment seems ideal for growing crops. Located in a hilly area of Ciwidey, West Java, 170 km or about a 4-hour drive from the capital Jakarta, the Al-Ittifaq complex is surrounded by green, with temperatures ranging between 18° and 18°. C to 22°C – cold by tropical standards.
Orange forest – with a surprise
Senior teacher Anwar Mustiawan shows reporters an area where white-stemmed orange trees are growing – and what makes pesantren only revealed. Arranged in neat rows, some trees are over two meters tall, others less than one meter. The soil under each is covered with a tarpaulin, underneath is a sensor that measures the temperature and humidity of the soil. A hose is attached to each tarp and connected to an automatic watering machine, which connects to a giant water tank.
“The machine decides, based on the temperature of the soil, when to water the soil,” Anwar said. He added: “This is digital farming technology.
He also points out that automatic waterers are not used for all crops. “Our students should know the temperature of the soil and when to water them,” says Anwar.
There is also Aziz Elbehri, senior economist who leads the 1,000 Digital Villages Initiative (DVI) at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the Asia-Pacific region.
“We are promoting sustainable, resilient and digital farming and farming practices by helping policymakers, national and local governments achieve the goals of the Goals.” Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030,” Elbehri told IPS during his visit pesantren on June 27th.
“The use of this technology needs to be spread and replicated to other rural communities,” he added.
Although Al-Ittifaq is at the heart of a thriving community of farmers, digitization is giving its inhabitants an even greater boost.
Everything produced on the farm is shipped to the Ittifaq cooperative, where students sort, sort, package, wrap and label items. The business supplies local supermarkets, malls and wholesalers of vegetables and fruits. It also procures products grown by local farmers, who have been its business partners since it was founded in 1977.
The head of the cooperative, Agus Setia Irawan, said the organization sends at least five tons of vegetables of various kinds every day to major cities in Indonesia. “The demand is growing because our products are highly competitive, which shows that local farmers have the ability to produce quality vegetables and fruits.”
Al-Ittifaq’s organic farming practices are what makes the difference. “The public understands that our products are grown, grown and processed in a sustainable and eco-friendly way,” adds Agus.
A student working at Al Ittifaq farm, Ciwidey, West Java, Indonesia, June 2022. Image supplier: Kafil Yamin/IPS.
Self-funded farm
The proceeds of the business are used to fund Ittifaq’s educational activities. “Our Syeikh taught us that a good person must be financially self-sufficient and not hope to give to charity. He made it a reality. Here pesantren Rezki, another student said.
Al-Ittifaq also hires locals to work on its 14-hectare farm, allowing students and local residents to exercise together. “There are hundreds of people, mostly women, working shifts with us. We are like an extended family here,” Refky added.
The cooperative also cooperates with five groups of farmers, each consisting of 300 farmers working on 70 hectares of land.
Not only pesantren has made great strides in the field of agro-industrial business, it has also become the center of agribusiness and agribusiness training for the people, with the cooperation of 20 pesantren in West Java.
And as part of its digitization efforts, Ittifaq has started marketing online. Agus said the cooperative has adopted a so-called business-to-consumer (B2B2C) business model. By partnering with other businesses, their online e-commerce efforts can reach new markets and customers.
“Our virtual marketing is done through an online agricultural store called Alifmart, which offers a number of features, including product catalog, purchasing mechanism and customer service,” he said.
With more and more people accessing the Internet, digital agriculture is becoming the main means of transforming Indonesia’s food system, said FAO Representative to Indonesia Rajendra Aryal.
“Indonesia is an archipelagic country that is struggling to provide its people with broader access to economic resources. He said.
Target – 104 digital villages
The West Java government has set a goal of digitizing 104 villages in the province by 2022.
“The villages were chosen because they don’t have internet yet. But we’ve been building the internet infrastructure over the course of the last two years. The head of the West Java Information and Communications Office, Ika Mardiah said. She added during a meeting with FAO officials on June 26: “And the potential and product of the village will soon be in e-commerce, online transactions and promotion.
To date, Mardiah’s office has incorporated 4,225 village businesses in West Java into the digital business network she manages. “This involves more than 400 products, 12.8 million customers, and a large amount of money,” she said.
According to West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, there will be more business, employment and career opportunities in the villages than in the cities. “With digitization, the future for the younger generation is in the villages,” he added at the meeting.
Kamil’s administration has successfully built three thematic digital villages: one focused on health, using technology to address the shortage of medical facilities and specialists. Patients in five pilot areas can consult their GPs online.
The Multimedia Digital Village provides capacity building in digital content creation skills for the people in the province, while the educational digital village is equipped with the so-called Smart Router as a resource education that all villagers can access. The documents are updated regularly.
A global initiative inspired by FAO Director-General, Mr. QU Dongyu, DVI is being piloted across the Asia-Pacific region. Ciwidey is among many communities that are being showcased and sharing their advancements with other villages and regions in Asia Pacific and other parts of the world.
© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
