New Market for Farmers in the Digital Era

Achieving global food security is the paramount mission of the United Nations (UN). The UN mandates that achieving food security goes beyond the scope of basic sustenance but also includes eliminating poverty and driving the food industry forward. Regrettably, farmers, as the backbone of food production, continue to earn a meager income. Data gathered from Statistics Indonesia 2018 revealed that farmers still receive income below the minimum wage set by the government.

Low income is just one of many problems that plague farmers and similar professions. Lack of job security, unclear contracts, and unsafe working conditions remain significant issues that need to be addressed. In response to these problems, The Management Student Team, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, offers an innovation in a Halmahera marketplace. The team consisted of Muhammad Arkan Saputra, Bagas Yudhanto Aji, Zagarino Farrel Dwipangga Putra, Ferina Indah Sari, and Nur Amelia. While developing the idea, the team was assisted by Novel Idris, S.Kom., M.M. as the supervisor. 

"We see a gap in the welfare of farmers in Indonesia compared to developed countries such as Switzerland or Japan," explained Arkan the team leader on Wednesday (16/8).

Arkhan explained that the low prices of agricultural products contributed to the decline of farmers' welfare. He also noted that many retailers are already in the industry, leading to increased competition and a more complicated system of getting products to the market.

"Farmers usually try to sell their products at high prices, but retailers often try to lowball the product. As a result, farmers end up having no income," he added.

Halmahera is a marketplace for farmers to sell their products. The marketplace also has bargaining features to facilitate interaction with customers. The name Halmahera is drawn from an endemic bird of Maluku island sporting brown and green plumage.

“Furthermore, 'Halmahera' in its terminology carries a meaning, referring to someone who naturally attracts wealth. 'Halmahera' also symbolizes creativity, so, we hope that the name of Halmahera represents order, service, resistance to limitations, and established development," explained Arkan.

In terms of concept, Halmahera is similar to other marketplaces. It includes features such as a dashboard interface, language selection (currently available in Indonesian and English), user account creation, store ratings, voucher placement, and various transaction options.

"We needed about two weeks to develop the idea, structure it into the Business Model Canvas (BMC), design the User Interface (UI), and other necessary tasks," he added.

Interestingly, the team also introduced a Voice Assistant feature aimed at assisting people with disabilities to easily search for their desired products.

"In Halmahera, for instance, if a user is looking for fertilizer, then automatically several types of fertilizers with various prices and descriptions will appear, and they will be directly assisted. So, it's not just narrated," said Farrel.

"Previously, there were already similar marketplaces, but as far as we know, they were limited to only distributing corn. Then, we thought, 'why not include everything?' or in other words, we expand the variables," explained Farrel.

From that issue, Farrel and the team finally agreed to develop the idea that products sold through Halmahera wouldn't be limited to just one type, but could include any agricultural sector products (growing media, harvest results, agricultural tools like tractors, and more). This was also seen as a way to assist farmers in fulfilling their needs.

In the same context, Ferina added that there's a desire to continue and further develop Halmahera. She hopes that the innovation created can be useful and support the activities of farmers.

"This can also contribute to self-sufficiency in the agricultural sector through the application of more advanced technology, as fundamentally, the progress of all business sectors, whether business or non-business, relies on a thriving agriculture," said the seventh-semester student.

The team's creative innovation has borne fruit on the international stage of the Business Pitching event as part of the Faculty of Business Management and Professional Studies Entrepreneurship Week 2023 (FBMP ETR Week 2023) held by Management and Science University (MSU), Malaysia. The team secured 1st place after surpassing the Jakarta Global University Indonesia team and the MSU Malaysia team.

"Initially, we had three options for ideas, then the team and our supervising lecturer discussed to decide which idea was the most relevant, and the Halmahera idea was selected," said the FEB student.

Arkan explained that the FBMP ETR Week 2023 competition wasn't their first international competition, as they previously participated in a competition in Jogja. However, in that competition, they had yet to secure victory. For this reason, he advised UMS students, particularly those from FEB, to keep their hearts and keep going even if they have yet to win in any competition.

"To my friends, never be afraid to express your ideas or concepts. Who knows, those ideas might positively impact many people. Never be disheartened if you've failed in a competition. You must rise again with other creative ideas!" concluded Arkan.

Writer: Genis Dwi Gustati

Translator: Farizal Luqman Majid