Natuna regency in Riau Island province is rich with natural resources. Even so, many local fishermen have not much knowledge about diseases in fish and how to resolve them. This inspired the UGM students that are doing Student Community Service in the area to make Android based application named as Dokter Ikan (Fish Doctor).
“Dokter Ikan is an Android based operation that enables fishermen to diagnose diseases in fish based on symptoms as well as giving alternative medication to fishermen that have no access to get it,” said student team coordinator, Ghilman Nafadza Hakim, on Thursday (6/7).
The app has been made by Joshua Alif Wendy from Faculty of Veterinary Sciences as well as Mohammad Afrizal from Electronics and Instrumentation.
Problems affected the marine breeders, according to Ghilman, is diseases in fish. The prevalence and fatality rate in fish is high. This is also difficult for the breeders to resolve.
“The diseases vary and these need special treatment in order not to spread to others. If fishermen lack of knowledge about a certain disease, this will affect the fish in terms of production and reproduction,” he said.
Traditional breeders and fishermen would generally use basic herbal powder to cure the fish, but not all diseases can be treated this way.
“It takes time to cure the fish with herbal powder and the fish may die in this duration because the condition already gets worse,” said the Philosophy student.
The student team launched the Dokter Ikan app when visiting the Pulau Tiga district in Natuna. Ghilman said the app displays images of diseases in fish, tabulation on prevention, treatment and medication. The app also has User Interface (UI) that is user friendly. It is communicative, educating the local people on the importance of keepng the health of the fish. The fishermen will have the right strategy to treat the diseases and control them. This is expected to increase the production and quality of the fish.
“The app is going to be developed further not only for Natuna area, but also all over Indonesia,” he added.