Socioeconomics of Agriculture Department UGM hosted a Seminar from 25-26 August on social economic research outcomes themed Role and Resource of Sustainable Agricultural Development.
Located in Auditorium of Prof. Harjono Danoesastro at Faculty of Agriculture UGM, State Secretary, Prof. Dr. Pratikno, M.Soc.Sc., as keynotespeaker, explained the possibility of agriculture becoming the sector most affected by technology disruption. Almost half of farmers in the world have lost their jobs because of Industry 4.0.
“This is happening not because agricultural production is no longer needed, but they have been replaced,” he said.
The demand of the current era, said Minister Pratikno, was speed and creativity while other factors such as land, manpower, or biodiversity are no longer the main player. “Digitalisation, biotechnology, and effectivity of process are keys to the agricultural revolution in this era,” he said.
Minister Pratikno, however, said that agricultural revolution was dominant in Europe. This has driven demographic disaster, which is productive age population is less than non-productive age.
He said Indonesia on the other hand experienced bonus of demography, hence the agricultural revolution has not impacted much in Indonesia. He then formulated the problems in Indonesia, which is access towards good technology and material. “Technology is present in Indonesia, but farmers don’t have access to it,” he said.
He opined that the cause is the socio-economic condition of Indonesia which is plural. Social gap in the country is too high. “So, the issue is no longer availability, but accessability,” he said,
The Minister said that Indonesia needs to encourage local farmers to be more independent to meet their needs. He pointed out that the Faculty of Agriculture stands in the forefront to accept and process the impact of Industry 4.0 and play the role to distribute it to farmers, he said.