The Faculty of Agricultural Industry Technology Universitas Padjadjaran gets a trust from Yanmar Co., a manufacturing company from Japan, to run some research programs. This trust is a symbol of Yanmar Co.’s appreciation towards the Faculty in their contribution on supporting the sustainable development goals.
The realization of this trust was conducted through the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Dean, Dr. Edy Suryadi, Ir., M.T., and the Executive Secretary of Yanmar Environmental Sustainability Support Association (YESSA) Yanmar Co., Osamu Sugano, at the Department of Agricultural Technology & Biosystem (TPB) Jatinangor on Wednesday, November 15th 2017. This event was attended by some lecturers and researcher from the the Faculty.
Sugano said that his team saw the seriousness of UNPAD’s Faculty of Agricultural Industry Technology in developing a variety of sustainable technologies. This happens to be in accordance with Yanmar’s mission on developing sustainable technologies particularly in agriculture, industry, forestry, and marine sectors.
“To make it happened, we need a college partner who has good academic capacity in the field. That is why we selectively choose Unpad and Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Indonesia, “said Sugano.
Under the coordination of YESSA, it provides opportunities for research and industry institutions that develop sustainable development. In this case, FTIP Unpad is included in the YESSA scheme in the development of agricultural monitoring in real time.
Yanmar Co., then agreed to provide a subvention for the program to be implemented at the Department of TPB Unpad. Coordinator of FTIP Unpad / Yanmar Co., Handarto, PhD, explained that the subsidy is given for the implementation of research related to the development of monitoring technology in increasing rice production.
Furthermore, Sugono said that this monitoring technology of fertilizer dosage system based on cellphone will be developed in 27 cities/regencies in West Java. By utilizing digital maps, this technology can see the data of the slope of the land, soil fertility, rainfall conditions, until plant nutrients. Monitoring results are then sent via short message service (SMS) to farmers’ cell phones.
Although the progress of mobile phone technology is so rapid, they still use SMS media. Handarto assessed there are several comparative advantages obtained from the SMS media. One of its strengths is to have better signal coverage than mobile internet signals.
Head of Department of Agricultural Technology and Biosystem, Faculty of Agricultural Industry Technology, Universitas Padjadjran, Ir. Totok Herwanto, M. Eng., said that the program will involve all lecturers of Agricultural Technology and Biosystem Department of Universitas Padjadjaran. In addition, some students are also involved in the completion of the final project. It is planned that this program will run for one year ahead.
Dr. Edy explained, this cooperation is expected to continue to run. According to him, this is an effort from Faculty of Agricultural Industry Technology, Universitas Padjadjran, in increasing international cooperation activities. *
