Professor of the UGM Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. Dr. Irham, M.Sc., has developed a farming record platform called Rektanigama. Rektanigama is an acronym for Rekam Usahatani Gadjah Mada or Gadjah Mada Farming Record, which functions as a digital application-based farming recording tool.
This application was developed so that it can become a partner for farmers in facilitating the recording of farming, especially in supporting the administrative needs of organic certification and in general, it is part of the managerial activities in farming with complex commodities.
“We are already lagging behind in this respect. In the UK, this kind of farming system recording has been around since 1800 and we know our farmers are indifferent to taking notes,” he said in the Fortakgama room, Tuesday (11/2)
Irham said that the initiation of digital recording has been started since 2013 with the name “Pokniluh”, a portal for tabulating farm business data online and was being tested in Kulon Progo through the support of a community service fund from LPPM UGM. In order to respond to the needs of farmers as end users, this Pokniluh is transformed into Rektanigama.
According to Irham, the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education has played a major role in this transformation. Rektanigama has several advantages over Pokniluh, one of which is that farmers not only record farming input at the end of management, but also record daily activities in detail and still prioritize easy and practical principles.
“The social and cultural conditions of farmers are the main considerations for the Rektanigama team. This team continues to be committed to making the Rektanigama website-based application easy for farmers to access and use,” he said.
Irham said that farm records are not only beneficial for commercial farming, but also subsystem type, both with organic and conventional (non-organic) business systems. In farming with an organic system, recording of farming is even a technical requirement for certification purposes.
“From the product side, farming business records guarantee the traceability of a commodity so that it can provide adequate information for consumers,” he said.
Compared to Pokniluh, Rektanigama has several advantages, one of which is that farmers not only record farming input at the end of management, but also record daily activities in detail while still prioritizing the principles of convenience and practicality. Even so, the social and cultural conditions of farmers are still the main considerations for the Rektanigama team in finding the easiest way of recording systems to be carried out by farmers.
Therefore, the Rektanigama team continues to be committed to making the Rektanigama website-based application easy for farmers to access and use. With a grant from the Ministry of Research and Technology, Rektanigama is expected to be developed into a smartphone-based farming recording application.
Rektanigama is expected to become a hub in the provision of valid, factual and assessable agricultural data. With valid, factual and comprehensive agricultural data, it can be used as a tool in policy making, both at the local, regional and national levels.
“We have already tested this application in Sleman and Magelang and it continues to be developed towards perfecting the application. We hope that Rektanigama will become a recommended application for farmers because of its reliability and practicality,” he concluded.
Source: https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/19014-dosen-ugm-kembangkan-rektanigama
