From leaving the office in Jakarta to hanging out in Lembang
by Lidya Sophiani
Even though many of my grandparents and uncles farmed, I never thought I would be interested in farming. After graduating from college, I chose to pursue a career in the capital. With a fairly comfortable salary and job, of course it never crossed my mind that one day I would change gears, go into agribusiness and start farming. But in fact that’s what happened. Life is full of surprises.
When the first COVID-19 case was announced in Indonesia, after almost four years of living in Jakarta, I was forced to return to my hometown to Bandung and work from home. I remember, when I had just returned to Bandung, all the supermarkets were crowded with people who started panic buying because they were afraid of running out of food if the lockdown was implemented. This situation also ultimately pushed many online grocery shopping service businesses to skyrocket. But even so, again I still hadn’t thought about providing a solution by providing online vegetable sales services, until one day I visited one of my uncle’s plantations and discovered something strange.
Mang, why is that a tomato? Seeur keneh teu in ala?” (Uncle, why are there still so many tomatoes but they haven’t been harvested?) I asked merchant when I saw lots of good tomatoes just left in the garden.
“It’s a loss when you harvest! Just let it rot in the garden, there are no harvest costs”
I was quite surprised to hear the answer. It’s sad. On the one hand, many people are afraid of hunger and food shortages. But on the other hand, farmers are willing to let the results of their hard agricultural work rot under the sun because they have no harvest costs. I asked again,
“Well, is that it? Mun sold teu payu?” (Why is that, uncle? If you sell it, it won’t sell?) “Enya, it’s really cheap!” (Yes (the price) is really cheap! (if sold))”Sabaraha kitu?” (How much (the price)?)“1,500 sakilo!”(1,500 per kilo)
Again I was shocked, shocked. The price of the kilo tomatoes I bought at the supermarket was 12,000 per kilo, and the money that went to the farmer was only 1/10 of the price I bought?! Sad, disappointed and confused. Maybe that’s how I felt when I found out how little of an award my uncle received. If I work hard for three months and don’t get paid, or get a super low price, there’s no way I can just sit back and do nothing. But in fact it was my uncle who was facing me.
He is not an office worker like me, and with the existing market conditions, he has no choice. Seeing this, of course I felt like I couldn’t stay silent.
“Cing lah ku abdi bade ditawarkeun ka rerencangan” (Here, I’ll try to offer it to a friend),” I said. Finally I brought around 20kg of tomatoes and 20kg of small chokun oranges which I bought at three times the price charged by the middlemen. I sold to my friends at a price slightly lower than the price in supermarkets at that time.
Digital Marketing and Product Innovation
It turns out that in less than a week, all the tomatoes and oranges were sold out. I went back and bought about twice the previous amount of tomatoes and oranges each. When offering oranges, there were several friends who asked to just squeeze the oranges into a bottle first. So I finally started selling bottled orange extract which then sold well. In just two months, my family and I sold more than a hundred bottles, one bottle containing extract from 2.5kg of oranges.
After selling orange extract, my family and I then thought about processing tomatoes that were ripe enough into bolognese sauce. By processing it into bolognese sauce, the product has added value and lasts longer. Initially my family and I only offered it to relatives and friends via WhatsApp.
Buyers order via WhatsApp and make payment according to the amount informed. After that, I will send the order to the buyer’s address. After having enough buyers, my sister and I finally started exploring Instagram under the name Cibodas Family Farm to market agricultural products from our uncle’s and extended family’s gardens in Cibodas Village, Lembang.
Learn to Plant and Care for Oranges About two months later, the oranges taken from my uncle’s garden ran out, until finally my family and I looked for oranges in the surrounding gardens. In the process of this search I learned a lot about types of oranges: from squeeze oranges, garut oranges, dekopon oranges, lemons, chokun oranges, to Fremont oranges.
I also learned how to plant and care for it so that the fruit can be abundant and dense. After selling and making orange extract from several different types of oranges, I decided to buy Fremont fruit seeds because of their unique taste.
Together with my family, I then bought and planted 100 new trees on land previously planted with tomatoes. Armed with the knowledge of caring for orange trees from the farmers we visited, we started the process before starting planting by applying manure to the land to be planted, one of the environmentally friendly fertilizer options because it uses what nature produces (animal waste) to return to nature.
A few weeks ago, we finally planted the little Fremont orange trees in my uncle’s garden and I can’t wait to see them grow tall with dense and sweet fruit.
The Power of Youth
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a source of various problems and unexpected and unexpected changes. Likewise for me and my family. However, from this experience, I learned that there is always a way out and an opportunity, even in difficult circumstances.
My sister and I also realize the importance of the role of young people who are technologically literate for a more prosperous agriculture. So far, farmers have been very dependent on middlemen who have controlled distribution channels to large and small markets.
However, when middlemen now have difficulty selling to the big market, prices finally fall. This is the root of the problem for farmers who rely on one distribution channel and one marketing method.
The key to farmer welfare is a fair market. In this digital world, young people’s digital fluency is an important factor in creating market fairness by creating new marketing channels, especially through the help of technology and digital platforms.
If previously marketing directly to consumers was difficult, even almost impossible for many farmers — then through digital fluency, this has become possible.
The use of technology can break long distribution chains into shorter ones. In this way, farmers can sell at higher prices and consumers also benefit because they can get fresh agricultural products, directly from the garden, and at prices that are cheaper than supermarket prices.
Not only that, by being literate in technology and information, we can help farmers provide agricultural products that the market wants.
For example, as public awareness of the importance of healthy and pesticide-free agricultural products increases, organic agricultural products are now in demand and even have a higher selling value. Apart from that, people are also more sensitive to the need for environmentally friendly packaging.
As young people who are sensitive to current developments and information, the farming process and packaging of agricultural products can be adjusted to current market conditions. Not only does it have a high selling value, implementing this is also good for the environment.
Starting from the desire to reduce the burden on my uncle and extended family, most of whom are farmers, I finally know a little more about agriculture and am now involved in selecting plant seeds that are productive and in demand, the processing process into value-added products, and the marketing process using digital facilities. which exists.
Even though I know that what I have done is not much, it seems that now I understand better why Bung Karno once said: “Give me 1000 old people, I will definitely uproot Semeru from the roots, give me 1 young man, I will definitely shake the world”
The enthusiasm and knowledge possessed by young people, if combined with the wisdom and experience of those who have had experience in the world of agriculture, could be a recipe for reviving agriculture in the country.
Hopefully more young people will advance Indonesian agriculture. I will look forward to sharing knowledge from fellow young farmers.
