In an international competition event called Agriverse: Finding Solution for Future Sustainable Agriculture organized by the International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences Local Committee Universitas Sebelas Maret, the Andeska team from UGM successfully brought home the award for 2nd place and best presentation. The team consists of Maria Angela Putri Rahardja (Food Technology and Agricultural Products), Sinung Gilang Akbar P (Agribusiness), and Wisnu Arif Budiman (Mechanical Engineering).
Wisnu Arif Budiman assessed that there should be a concern in the agricultural sectors due to the degrading value caused by climate change, land area decline, rice dominating staples, etc.
“The competition carries the theme optimization of Human Development to Increase Food Resilience in New Normal Life with Sustainable Agriculture,” he said at the UGM campus on Tuesday (23/3).
There were five sub-themes offered in this opportunity: Smart Farming, Land Use, Agricultural Biotechnology, Food Diversification, and Agricultural Product Supply Chain. In this part, the Andeska team took the topic about Sorghum tourist village based on agro Edu tourism to solve Indonesia’s food diversification system that has not been optimized.
“There is still a lack of equilibrium demand and production in Indonesia,” he said.
Hence, the Andeska team offered a solution to fulfill the community needs by optimizing local food in their regions, resulting in increased food availability in each region. This system has set the goal to improve the economy of the community.
Independence and economic improvement in each region and access to food bring improvement followed by local food stability prices that did not have a large demand beforehand. This effort will also strengthen Indonesia’s food security conditions if all regional areas applied this strategy to managing their local food other than Sorghum.
“We hope that Indonesia can take a better advantage for their potential of local food in each region, especially local food that has not been well-managed and focused, such as Sorghum. This effort is considered to be effective in slightly changing people’s dependency on rice consumption as well as a way to prevent the lack of food inequality in various regions in Indonesia,” he explained.
Successfully passing three stages of selection had managed the Andeska team into their achievement. That is the initial registration until February 20, 2021, followed by the top 5 on March 13, 2021, and the presentation on March 20, 2021.
“The three selections consist of abstract selection, essay selection, and the final stage with the top 5 teams presenting their work in front of the judges,” he explained.
Author: Agung Nugroho