The Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) held a Smart Farming Training Of Trainer (TOT) for widyaiswara, lecturers, teachers and agricultural extension workers. This training is held to improve the competence of agricultural human resources to boost productivity, agricultural production with high selling value, to exports. Smart farming is a technology-based agricultural system that can help farmers increase crop yields in quantity and quality so that it is the key for the agricultural sector to continue to exist amidst the impacts of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. "ToT smart farming is an effort to penetrate the sky and this ToT must not fail because it shows a paradigm shift and the transformation of agriculture from traditional methods to modern methods through smart farming. answer challenges and are left behind in life," said Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo when giving directions to the Smart Farming ToT for widyaiswara, lecturers, teachers and agricultural extension workers held by the Agricultural Extension and Human Resources Development Agency (BPPSDMP), Tuesday (25/1/2022).
Minister of Agriculture SYL explained the reasons for the importance of implementing smart farming. According to him, smart farming is important because agriculture is currently and in the future faced with big challenges, namely climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. Facing the challenges of climate change is not in classical ways, but must be smart farming because future developments will make the land narrower, the population will increase, and so on, thus requiring the use of smart technology. "Therefore, the presence of the ToT is important because developing agriculture cannot be speculated. If this happens the country will be short of food, the community will have difficulty getting food. However, with the ToT, farming does not have to be on a large area and handling agriculture from upstream to downstream is precise and measurable, " he explained. "Then, digitalization of agriculture became effective and the use of mechanization advanced so that production continued to increase with high quality and farmers' incomes increased," added SYL. SYL also hopes that the ToT smart farming can more massively attract the millennial generation to engage in agriculture. The reason is that agricultural progress is also supported by the millennial generation because they have a high spirit of innovation to carry out new ways of handling advanced, independent, and modern agriculture. "Usually young people are more easily transferred to modern agricultural technology. Because it is proven, the millennial farmers we assist have an average income of tens of millions, IDR 400 million, and some even reach IDR 2 billion. Marketing of agricultural products by digital, can sell from his own village," he said.
In the same place, Head of the Agricultural Human Resources Extension and Development Agency (BPPSDMP) Dedi Nursyamsi explained that smart farming technology was developed as an adaptive response to current technological changes and developments. Smart farming allows farmers to have better control over the production process through good and efficient crop and livestock management. "The concept of agricultural development must be followed by an increase in the intellectual agenda of all stakeholders, especially farmers as the frontline. We have been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change for a long time. However, in this condition, productivity and agricultural production must not decrease, in fact it must continue to increase. The solution is this smart farming or the use of the internet of things," he said. Dedi added that smart farming is the use of bio-technology products, including balanced fertilization, the use of high-yielding varieties, agricultural mechanization, and the use of the internet of things. Based on that, BPPSDMP held a Smart Farming ToT for widyaiswara, lecturers, teachers, and agricultural extension workers. "With balanced fertilization, we can unravel the polemic of chemical fertilizer prices, which have increased prices and increased use of organic fertilizers, resulting in higher production. The application of the internet of things is a breakthrough that can make agricultural production more effective and sustainable," he explained.
