Through the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, the government has introduced a program that includes training and workshops for at least 1 million fishermen in 300 coastal areas or cities around Indonesia.

“The 1-million independent fishermen program is very important and has to be carried out. This includes ship repairs and painting and the dissemination of information regarding the use of FishOn technology,” said Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

The program is supported by mobile phone-based application FishOn in cooperation with state-owned telecommunications company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia. The app offers useful features for fishermen, including Fish Finder, which helps them locate their catch easily; Panic Button to send an emergency signal to nearby fishermen for help; and Chat Messenger to send messages to friends or relatives while they are out at sea.

A promotional campaign for the program will kick off on Saturday at Pelabuhan Ratu, Sukabumi, West Java, before moving on to Sula Island in North Maluku on April 20 and 21. The workshop will involve around 1,000 participants, including representatives from cooperatives, fishermen and suppliers. The government plans to train at least 300,000 people through the program by the end of 2019.

Based on data from United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Indonesia’s ocean wealth reached US$2.5 trillion per year and only 7 percent has been utilized, mainly because of the lack technology usage that is crucial to help fishermen find the location of fish quickly and accurately.

The number of fishermen also continued to decrease from year to year because of the low interest among young people to take up the job. The government’s latest data show that there are 2.7 million fishermen in Indonesia, contributing 25 percent to the national poverty rates.

“We have been running a pilot project in Lampung for the past two years. We found that there are other problems faced by fishermen, such as the fact that their fish get easily spoiled,” said FishOn CEO Fajar Widisasono.

Therefore, the start-up decided to collaborate with a professor from the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) to find a solution for keeping fish fresh for a longer time without the use of freezers. They created a product named Fish Pressure that can keep fish fresh for up to 45 days.

In addition to that, FishOn also collaborates with charitable institutions to help give fishermen access to capital and give them productive loans from state-owned companies through the microcredit program (KUR). State-owned companies will help ensure that the fishermen would be able to repay their loans.

Through a marketplace called FishMart.id, the start-up company also enables fishermen to sell their catch at a better market rate than at traditional fish auctions.

“We are creating an online fish auction to help fishermen sell their catch at higher prices. Middlemen can also place bids there,” Fajar explained.

With the support of FishOn, the government hopes to increase Indonesia’s utilization of its oceans to 17 percent from 7 percent, subsequently reducing poverty across the country.

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