IO, Bogor – The livestock sector plays an important role in the national economy. Livestock raising by smallholder farmers is still mostly traditional and productivity still relatively low. Among the commodities of livestock that has enjoyed booming demand in Indonesia is milk. Unfortunately, domestic milk production is only growing by 2%, far below the soaring 14.01% rise in demand recorded between 2002- 2007.
The gap between growth in consumption and production shortfalls translates to happiness for foreign dairy concerns, as Indonesian milk imports continue to rise. But why can we not fulfill our own domestic demand?
This misalignment prompted three students from the Faculty of Animal Husbandry of IPB University: M. Farhan, Rechsa Amberty, and Kodarusman, to discuss an application called Limosim (for “Livestock Monitoring System”) in a competition themed “Millennial Generation Innovation Facing Global Challenges in the Effort to Realize Golden Indonesia 2045”.
Limosim is an application based on digital technology in the field of animal husbandry that is intended to serve as a medium for monitoring farms, especially dairy cows. Limosim comes with a concept of monitoring that is precise, accurate, and efficient.
With the use of digital technology as a tool for data processing, it is expected to create a management strategy for the development of smallholder farms that is fast and in real-time.
This idea enabled the team to win 3rd place in the Creative National Economic Management Essay Competition which was held at Semarang State University last week. “So, the application of Limosim is a link between dairy farmers and breeding experts to help in the development of smallholder farming,” said Rechsa.
The Limosim application provides various important data about dairy farming as well as aquaculture management such as on how to handle pregnant cows, handle sick cows, ration resources, amass capital and other important livestock information. The team has equipped it with various features that will support its performance in the form of a homepage, profile, discussion, and monitoring. The main feature that becomes the focus of Limosim is the monitoring feature.
“This feature enables farmers to input data on the development of dairy farming production along with other data, so that business development can be monitored to decide on an appropriate and accurate management system,” he added. (*/est)