eFisheryKu Application Wants to Digitize Farmers' Business Processes Completely

Startups aquatech eFishery has re-launched the eFisheryKu digital-based cultivation solution. Through this platform, partners can carry out cultivation activities and gain access to markets. Currently, the new application is available for Android devices.

Contacted DailySocial.id, Founder & CEO of eFishery Gibran Huzaifah said the Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on the limited mobility of the community, making it difficult for fish and shrimp cultivators in Indonesia to carry out aquaculture activities. This includes transacting activities to finding the right market to sell their crops.

According to him, eFisheryKu has only been launched now because it wants to build an ecosystem and farmer community from the start. "Cultivators also need to be educated first, so now they are strong enough [the ecosystem and community]," said Gibran.

eFisheryKu is a digital cooperative application that supports the activities of aquaculture partners in eFishery, starting from buying feed, selling fish, promotions, information about market prices, to applying for loans. To date, the service has been downloaded more than 1.000 times by users.

There are several excellent features that the company offers. First, capital facilities through services paylater Kabayan (Love, Pay Later), cultivators can take advantage of fishery production facilities that can be paid for with a 1-6 month tenor system. Submissions can be made directly via eFisheryKu without the need to come to eFishery Point.

"A number of channel partners who have partnered for Kabayan services include Alami, Investree, Kawan Cicil, Crowdo, Kredivo, and BRI Agro. Maximum limit which are now approved by our users, which reach Rp. 1,7 billion, but it depends on the scale of the business," he explained.

In a written statement, currently eFishery noted that there are 13.000 cultivators who have joined eFishery. Of this total, about a third have access to capital with a total approved financing of nearly Rp200 billion.

Second, purchase facility online, allowing farmers to choose a variety of feed options at competitive prices. "The concept is kind of [marketplace]. The plan is for users to start transacting directly on the application next month. At this time, they are still connected to the eFisheryPoint team if they want to transact," said Gibran.

In the future, the company will launch two new features, namely Fish Auction and Cultivation Registration. Gibran explained, the Fish Auction feature will connect cultivators with first-mile buyers. Meanwhile, Cultivation Recording functions as a feature of recording feed data and financial management. According to him, this feature model is similar to BukuWarung or BukuKas.

eFisheryKu has also collaborated with many other digital platforms to strengthen the service ecosystem, such as Kargo for logistics systems, Sayurbox, GoFresh, and Aruna for supply consumer fish, merchant, and exporters. It ensures that it will increase eFisheryKu collaborations with other digital players.

Aquatech during the pandemic

The eFisheryKu platform can be said to complement the existing service ecosystem. eFishery strives to provide services from upstream to downstream with technology-based solutions, access to capital, and access to markets cultivator. The startup that was founded in 2013 has launched various products, namely eFishery Feeder, eFishery Fund, to Kabayan services.

In general, the activity of buying and selling feed through digital platforms is not something new. Despite the low internet adoption among cultivators, a number of related startups are trying to develop innovations to help bring together cultivators with wider market access.

Report DSInnovate and Crowde titled "Driving the Growth of Agriculture-Technology Ecosystem in Indonesiarevealed that there were only 4,5 million internet users in this sector in 2020. According to this report, there are three major challenges faced by farmers during the pandemic, including work productivity, productivity shockand trade shocks.

Meanwhile, the released data Marine and Fisheries Ministry (KKP) stated that the pandemic had a significant impact on the economy of the fish farming sector due to the closure offline market (conventional fish markets, hotels, restaurants) that cause supply chain disruption.

Nevertheless, KKP noted that the condition of the fish farming sector in the third quarter of 2020 began to improve with an increase in the cultivator's exchange rate (NTPi) of around 0,58 points in December compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, the government has prepared a number of mitigation measures to encourage this sector, one of which is through the adoption of adaptive and efficient technological innovations.