“We have been working together with several digital markets such as TaniHub, Eragano and e-village to get farmers online. We have been guiding farmers and it has already been implemented in 10 villages,” Septriana Tangkary, the Communications and Information Ministry’s director for information industry empowerment, said on Monday.

Meanwhile, the ministry has also been encouraging fishermen to use a smartphone app dubbed Nelpin. The app offers information about the weather, and also types of fish and their distribution.

While the government had been encouraging all regional agencies to use the app, Septriana acknowledged it was difficult to use in some areas that only had a 2G network. The Communications and Information Ministry hopes the issue will be resolved in line with the development of the Palapa Ring project, which will allow for high-speed internet connections all across the archipelago.

The ministry has set a target to get 300,000 fishermen and farmers to go digital by the end of the year, and is so far 100,000 short of their target. Next year, the ministry hopes to get another 300,000 fishermen and farmers to go online.

Moreover, the Communications and Information Ministry has also set a target to get 8 million small and medium enterprises to go digital by 2019. Data from the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry shows that 3.79 million small and medium enterprises already use online methods.

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