Karsa Enliven Technology Solutions in the Agricultural Sector

Indonesia as a country known for its agriculture is undergoing a digital transformation. Not to be left behind, the agricultural sector has also attracted the attention of several parties by presenting digital solutions to help the Indonesian agricultural sector in a better direction. One of the new ones is Karsa, an application developed as a platform all in one for all stakeholder in the agricultural sector.

From a concept point of view, Karsa which in Indonesian means intention, trying to provide the things farmers need in a container packaged in the form of an application mobile devices for the Android platform. Karsa provides important information for farmers including weather information, prices, news about agriculture, and includes a feature to order agricultural equipment.

In his information to DailySocial, one of the initiators of Karsa Yudha Kartohadiprodjo explained that in addition to farmers, Karsa was also designed and prepared for parties involved in the agricultural sector, such as government officials, owners of agricultural products, producers of agricultural equipment, and other agricultural actors. Apart from the application form mobile devices Karsa is also said to be accessible using desktop with in application form websites.

“We designed Karsa to meet the needs of agricultural actors and ensure that they receive a variety of information in a timely and efficient manner. This application provides an opportunity for farmers to get information from before they plant their crops—whether the seeds planted are suitable or not for their area, how to plant properly to the amount of harvest and income that they might get,” said Co-Founders Karsa Yudha and Ming Transfer.

Ming further explained that Karsa's initial idea came from the enthusiasm of young farmers to use social media to develop their knowledge about the world of agriculture. Yudha sees that maybe the concept of social media that allows the community to help everyone in it is a modern form of gotong royong.

Yudha hopes that Karsa can become a medium for communicating with each other among the agricultural community while simultaneously increasing food security and the prosperity of the Indonesian people.

Another thing that Karsa is trying to do with his platform is to use data to get the best analysis for the world of agriculture. After the registered farmers have completed their planting profile, location and area of ​​their crops, the data will then be used to provide advice to them on a regular basis.

The data collected can also be used by the government to conduct counseling, determine policies, to predict in real terms agricultural output in the future. The same data will also be available to owners of other agricultural products, such as producers of fertilizers, seeds, agricultural equipment and the mass media.

There will be a Karsa team of agricultural experts who will provide advice specific to each crop. Karsa is currently supported and is said to have been supported by an expert council consisting of 5 active lecturers and agricultural experts from the Bogor Agricultural Institute and Gajah Mada University. So far, from Karsa's internal data, it is stated that this service already has guidelines for 12 kinds of plants with 300 kinds of variants.