IO – Yogyakarta – The Andeska student team from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Yogyakarta has secured an international achievement in the “Agriverse: Finding Solutions for Future Sustainable Agriculture” event held by the International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences, Local Committee from Sebelas Maret University (UNS) Solo,
March 20. In this international competition, the Andeska Team, consisting of Maria Angela Putri Rahardja (Food Technology and Agricultural Products), Sinung Gilang Akbar P. (Agribusiness) and Wisnu Arif Budiman (Mechanical Engineering) won second place and were awarded for the best presentation.
On behalf of the team, Wisnu explained that the competition was held against the background of the need to increase student awareness of and contribution to the agricultural sector, which is currently heavily affected by climate change, decreasing land cultivation area, rice dominating staple food, and other issues. “The competition carries the theme ‘Optimization of Human Development to Increase Food Resilience in New Normal Life with Sustainable Agriculture’,” he said, as quoted from Ugm.ac.id, Wednesday (23/3/2021).
There are five sub-themes in this competition, namely, Smart Farming, Land Use, Agricultural Biotechnology, Food Diversification and Agricultural Product Supply Chain. The UGM Andeska Team in this competition brought the paper titled “Sorghum Tourist Village, Based On Agro Edu Tourism as a Solution for the Food Diversification System in Indonesia”. “We know food diversification is indeed not optimal in Indonesia. It is so because of the lack of equilibrium between demand and production,” said Wisnu.
In this competition, the UGM Andeska team offered solutions to meet the needs of citizens by maximizing local varieties which would affect the increase in food availability in each region. With this system, it is hoped that it can improve community economies.
With independence in each region and an increase in the economy, access to food can also increase, hopefully followed by stability of food prices for local food that previously did not generate a large demand. These efforts will simultaneously create conditions for food security in Indonesia if they are also applied to local
foods other than sorghum.
“In the future, we hope that Indonesia will be able to maximize the potential of local food in each region, especially local food that has not been popularized, such as sorghum. Thus, people’s consumption does not depend only on rice, and the system could also minimize the lack of food inequality between various regions in Indonesia,” he explained.
The UGM Andeska Team succeeded after passing through three stages of selection: initial registration until February 20, 2021, followed by the announcement of the Top-5 on March 13, and presentation on March 20. “The first is abstract selection, the second is essay selection, the third is the final stage with the top five teams presenting their paper in front of the jury,” he added.
The decision of the jury, UGM Andeska Team secured the right to win second place and the best presentation. Congratulations! (est)