UMG Myanmar "All Out" Helps the Development of Agricultural Technology in Indonesia

UMG Idealab, which was initiated by the Myanmar conglomerate from Indonesia (UMG Myanmar), Kiwi Aliwarga, launched an integrated application RiTx with the theme of agriculture.

To DailySocialRitx Indonesia's Head of Digital Marketing Jefry Pratama said that this application is expected to help farmers take advantage of features and articles related to agriculture. The RiTx app is already available on Google Play and has been downloaded by more than 1000 people in the first month of launch.

By utilizing smartphones, farmers can get information such as weather predictions, identification of pests, articles about agriculture, question and answer forums to the prices of the latest commodities.

"RiTx also has a marketplace feature that provides a platform for buying and selling seeds, pesticides and machines at competitive prices," said Jefry.

To expand marketing activities and farmer acquisition activities, the RiTx development team often holds offline activities, visiting farmers in Central Java and Jogjakarta.

"Our target in 2018 is to deploy five thousand agents to acquire farmers. It is hoped that RiTx can reach as many as 250 thousand farmers."

Furthermore, RiTx plans to launch a second version of the mobile application which will later be equipped with a number of additional features, such as harvest reports, features chat, and others.

UMG Center of Excellence

In the middle of April 2018, Kiwi Aliwarga announced that he would build a UMG Center of Excellence in Indonesia. It is planned that this facility will be built in the Bangunkerto area, Kec. Turi, Sleman. This facility is claimed to be the first in Indonesia.

This facility will function as a laboratory for various Agro-Biotech research activities, research on agricultural equipment, fisheries and animal husbandry, as well as research on various matters related to technology in the agricultural sector.

"We also plan to build a central laboratory to conduct research and production, such as Agro-Biogtech, IoT and Agrivision, Drones and Electric Vehicles," said Kiwi.

Besides RiTx, UMG Idealab has also launched FisTx and LiTx. Through UMG Idealab, there have been 14 startups funded in Indonesia and more than 20 startups funded in Southeast Asia with the majority spread across Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.