UGM Alumnus from Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Fajar Sidik Abdullah Kelana, succeeded to be the winner in a food security competition, YOUTH AG SUMMIT 2017 (YAS 2017) which was held in Brussels, Belgium.
“I am very grateful to make Indonesia proud in international level,” said Fajar on Thursday (19/10).
In the competition, Fajar joined Agrikua Team which consisted of 10 youths from all over the world. They were Cassandra Hayward (Canada), Diana Pamela Rico Campos (El Salvador), Juan Pablo Casadiego Guevara (Colombia), Magnus Lindhart (Denmark), Oleksandr Mazur (Ukraine), Sophie Healy Thow (Ireland), Risper Njagi (Kenya), Ritchie Raphael (Tanzania), and Apoorva Valli Shankar (India).
They proposed an idea and project which was a professional online platform named as AGRIKUA. It aims to campaign the fifth Sustainable Development Goals which is gender equality in the agricultural sector.
“Pilot project will be conducted in Kenya with the target of young women in Kenya to actively participate in the agricultural sector and become the agents who address food crisis problems in the world,” he added.
By proposing this project, the Agrikua Team succeeded to be the first winner and defeated other nine teams from various countries in the world. They also earned funding of €10000 as well as an opportunity to visit Germany to attend a training in Bayer CropScience International and run the Agrikua project.
Fajar said he had a long journey as the delegate of Indonesia in YOUTH AG SUMMIT 2017. During the competition which was held by Bayer CropScience International, Fajar wrote an essay regarding his research at UGM which is MINO Microbubble Technology that is combined with a Minapadi agricultural system.
“Thanks to these project and essay, I succeeded to be chosen as Indonesian delegate and my work was selected from 1,200 projects and essays from all over the world,” said Fajar.
Aside from Fajar, there are also two youths who become Indonesian delegates in YAS 2017, they are Andy Alamsyah from Jenderal Soedirman University and Ferry Fernando from the University of Indonesia. Fajar further said this achievement cannot be separated from the guidance of his mentors from Bayer CropScience Indonesia, Maria Magdalena Pakpahan and Andi Dwi Mandasari, as well as UGM lecturers.