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Use of IoT tech to attract millennial generation to agriculture as farmers age
The number of farmers below the age of 25 years accounted only about 1 percent of the 27 million in the country as of 2018
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Farmers harvest rice in Tegalgondo village, Malang, East Java. Experts say the modernization of Indonesia’s agricultural sector is needed to lure millennials to farms.
(JP/Aman Rochman)
I
ndonesia’s agricultural sector is facing a decline in its workforce as many young people in rural areas prefer moving to cities to earn a living.
According to experts, the modernization of the country’s agriculture should be promoted so more educated young people are willing to return to their villages to farm.
The use of modern technology, such as the internet of things (IoT), can hopefully increase the interest of millennials, people born between 1981 and 1996, in agriculture as the farmer demographic in Indonesia has started to age.
“With the use of technology in agriculture, we hope we can attract youngsters to work in the agricultural sector as it is very rare to find young farmers in the field nowadays,” the head of the Commission on Pesticide’s technical team, Dadang, said in a discussion with reporters in Jakarta on Dec 12.
Agricultural technology startup Habibi Garden's chief executive officer, Irsan Rajamin, said that the utilization of IoT technology could be a magnet for millennials and youth and bring them into the agricultural industry.
“Millennials cannot take their eyes off of their phones, even for just an hour, so we just have to make their habits more productive,” he said at the same event.
Habibi Garden uses modern technology such as IoT and a digital application to help farmers. By connecting sensors and irrigation systems in the farms to the internet and providing data based on machine learning, Habibi Garden can help farmers monitor and maintain their farms and crops remotely.
