Digitizing Villages to Empower Rural Communities

in Facing Digital Economic Era

Sinta Mulyani Dwi Putri, Ericha Mutia Putri, Nurfitrianita

Syahnas

Black Gecko, Telkom University

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ABSTRACT

The Government of Indonesia, is currently incessant in conducting welfare equality

by referring to the development of the digital economy, where economic transaction
that occurs is done cashless or through an intermediary of digital platforms (e-
commerce). To equalize infrastructure, the imbalance of technological insights in
rural and urban communities is a quite challenge. These rural communities
generally make a living by cultivating the surrounding land, so they lack awareness
to learn technology. With that in mind, it’ll certainly cause a setback to be eroded
by urban development, even the Central Statistics Agency of Indonesia (BPS) in
2018 noted that unemployment rate in the countryside increased to 4.04%, which
in 2017 reached 4.01%. Many rural communities are urbanizing to get a stable jobs
but do not bring enough preparation to compete in the digital-based world of work.
Human resources of rural communities can be said to be quite lagging so that there
needs to be a solution to overcome this, one of which is the launching of the Digital
Village program. This program can guide them to learn technology and implement
it in business processing to develop their villages according to its characteristics.
By empowering rural communities with this digital technology, it can certainly
prevent excessive urbanization and can advance their villages in many sector – such
as field yield and tourism, so that prosperity in Indonesia can be achieved.
Keyword: digital village, digital economy, rural empowerment, urbanization
prevention
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INTRODUCTION

The rapid development of technology now makes all activities that

previously required the full involvement of human power now begin to turn towards
automation. Starting with only relying on human power to switch to a steam engine
continued with the development of mass production until the emergence of the
industrial revolution 3.0 with automatic machines and the latest is the industrial
revolution 4.0 with the internet of things system is one proof that the role of
technology has greatly influenced all aspects one of them is in the economic field.
The development of this technology also makes each country start to aggressively
innovate in developing the country's economy, one of which is Indonesia. As an
agricultural country, Indonesia itself has abundant and diverse natural products.
However, the abundance of natural products does not directly make the Indonesian
economy evenly said. Unequal infrastructure development makes the application of
technology not well distributed so that the distribution of existing natural products
becomes stagnant. In addition, education is a key in changing mindsets and a better
economy into things that are not too important for rural communities. This also
makes many rural young generation choose to do urbanization activities rather than
having to process the natural products of their respective regions.
Reporting from the latest Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data points to the
increasing level between villages and cities. In 2018, the poverty rate in the village
is around 13.2% while in the city it is only 7%. In addition, 60% of the poor living
in the village are more than the poor who live in the city. This happened because
they were considering getting a better life quickly switching from village to city.
Not limited access to urbanization makes it easier for the population, this is
supported by data from the Central Statistics Agency in 2018, the average open rate
in Indonesia reaches 5.34% with the province of Banten 52%. If this issue is
continually published, Indonesia will be increasingly unbalanced who want natural
products to be prepared in areas that could become the main key of the country's
Indonesia which is being abandoned because there are no young people who want
to cultivate it. Besides the impact of urbanization that is not limited to the impact
of the level of environmental slums, congestion, and even crime. By changing the
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mindset of the rural young generation to get a decent economy not only by carrying
out urbanization needs an important role from the government. In addition, the
development of industries and services in rural areas that can open opportunities for
workers in rural areas that can be started with the development of infrastructure and
the application of digital technology that are considered very important in making
equitable development.
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LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Geographic information system (GIS)

Geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system used to
collect, examine, integrate, and analyze information related to the surface of the
earth. GIS consists of software and hardware, data and users and institutions to
store data related to all events that occur on earth. Data that can be stored in the
form of detailed facts, conditions and information in a database that can later be
used for various purposes such as analysis, manipulation, presentation and so
on. GIS technology was created to help its users to collect data, store data and
analyze objects and their geographical data referencing from geography. It can
be said that the combination of the main elements in GIS is a system,
information and geography that can produce information systems. Geographical
elements in GIS are places located on the surface of the earth, knowledge about
the position where an object is located on the surface of the earth, and
information about the information contained on the surface of the earth whose
position is known. GIS has been applied by various countries and also various
fields, including Indonesia.
The entry of GIS to Indonesia has started since the 1980s until now GIS
is still used by all Indonesian people. One example of the application of GIS in
Indonesia is the introduction of GIS technology in online transport applications,
it is already familiar to the Indonesian people about online transport applications
because all Indonesian people have been using online transport applications
because these applications greatly facilitate the public if they need
transportation. Therefore GIS can also help and be used for developments in the
agricultural sector. There are so many uses and benefits of GIS in the
agricultural sector that can be used to monitor agricultural cultivation, to control
pests and diseases, to determine water resources, to monitor production in
agriculture, to see damage to land, to assess the risk of agricultural business to
help in determination of the harvest period.
2. Agriculture
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Agriculture is the activity of utilizing biological resources carried out by

humans to produce food, industrial raw materials, or energy sources, and to
manage their environment. Usually agriculture is understood by people as
cultivating plants or farming and raising livestock, the use of microorganisms
and bioenzymes in processing advanced products such as making cheese or
tempeh. The agricultural sector is a very important and dominant sector in the
development of the Indonesian economy because Indonesia is rich in its
biological resources. That makes Indonesia known as an agrarian country,
which means that the country relies on agriculture as a source of livelihood. But
as time goes by until the times change, the agricultural sector has begun to
develop only lack of human resources in managing agriculture and also its
results and connecting the sector into technology, this has resulted in agriculture
in remote parts of Indonesia not well managed.
3. Soil pH Meter
Soil pH meter is a pH and humidity test or moisture content on long-
lasting soil. This tool has a metal probe that is very strong so that it can be used
to measure soil pH, humidity to measure the level of water content even on dry
soil. This tool is able to measure soil pH starting from the measurement range
of pH 3 to pH 8, while for measuring the level of water or moisture levels in the
soil can measure ranging from values 1 to 8. Usually this tool is used in
agriculture and plantations that have characteristics loose soil. This tool is very
practical and simple because it does not need electricity resources at all.
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METHODOLOGY
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Conclusions
Population density in big cities like Jakarta has caused many problems,
ranging from congestion to the slum environment. This is partly due to the high
level of urbanization that occurs every year. After Eid Al-Fitr in June 2019 alone,
there were 37,443 people from various regions from West Java, Central Java, East
Java, to Lampung moving to settle in Jakarta. Most of the migrants moved to Jakarta
with the aim of finding work, both in the field of work and as an online motorcycle
taxi (Tambun, 2019). The mass transfer of people to large cities certainly causes
disparities in both the economic and resource terms in each region. If this
urbanization occurs continuously, areas far from the center of government will
always be left behind. Therefore, treatment needs to be done to do welfare
distribution.
One important factor in the effort to equalize the welfare of the community
is equality in the field of technological progress. The lack of technological literacy
in local communities that are far from urban areas makes them always retarded in
getting important information, especially in this digital era. To deal with this
problem, there needs to be socialization or counseling on the importance of
technology. In this case, the government can design a Digital Village program in
areas that are quite behind in terms of technology. Digital Village is a program to
empower rural communities through the use of digital technology and the internet
in developing village potential, accelerating access and information services. This
Digital Village Program has actually been launched by the Governor of West Java,
Ridwan Kamil to advance rural welfare around West Java. With this Digital Village
program, the government plans to make all public services in the village be
connected to the internet network. In addition, social media accounts will be created
in the village as a forum to promote the potential of each village. In addition, the
government has also developed applications that can help each village to optimize
its potential. In the Digital Village trial which took place in Puntang Village,
Loasarang Subdistrict, Indramayu whose main livelihood was in the fisheries sector,
the e-Fishery application was implemented. The e-Fishery application can regulate
the catfish feeding schedule that has been arranged scientifically. And it has been
proven, by scheduling feed through the application it can increase the harvest to 6
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times per year, which by manually harvesting is only 3-4 times per year. The
proceeds from the catfish harvest will automatically experience a surge of up to Rp.
2 trillion per year. This certainly can bring the village to become more prosperous
in terms of its economy, the use of good digital technology has succeeded in
bringing benefits. However, each village has different potentials and main
livelihoods, therefore it is necessary to develop an application to help run this
Digital Village program.
In developing this Digital Village application, the main thing that needs to
be developed is the potential development feature in other fields, such as agriculture
or agriculture. The problems that often make farmers experience crop failures are
one of them because of the weather uncertainty so that the harvesting phase is not
certain for the field farmers. Therefore, we plan an application that can help farmers
increase the profits from harvesting their fields, namely TANDI (Pertanian Digital)
- Digital Agriculture. This TANDI app has several features, such as
1. weather forecast,
2. setting the level of volume of water needed for the land (real-time),
3. simulating fields,
4. media share new information about tips about agriculture, and
5. e-commerce facilities to be able to sell the results of their fields directly
to the customer without the need for middlemen.
This TANDI application will later use an information system originating
from the Geographic Information System (GIS) to obtain information about
weather forecasting and temperature humidity around the agricultural fields. Also
with TANDI, farmers can regulate and control the humidity level of groundwater
in the fields. The right key to a successful harvest in the fields is soil irrigation,
using a soil moisture meter or Soil PH Meter connected to the TANDI application
on the user's gadget, will be synchronized so that the water content needed by the
field is adjusted to the lighting from the sun in real-time. . Another feature that can
be utilized by farmers is field simulation. This field simulation is a feature that can
help farmers to plan before conducting planting activities. This feature can project
how many crops will be obtained in a field of this size. The feature also provides a
level of crop failure that might be experienced by the farmer by adjusting the
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climate. With this, the chance of crop failure will be even smaller. In addition to the
main features that can minimize crop failure rates, TANDI also provides social
media features where farmers from other regions can share tips and knowledge
about the agricultural realm. Of course it can enrich the insights of farmers and can
persuade farmers to be more creative with their fields so they can increase profits.
Then, the last feature on this TANDI is the e-commerce feature for the crops. The
farmers can sell the results of their fields directly without the middlemen. This
TANDI will also be connected with the logistics for agricultural products so that
there is no need to confuse the distribution of agricultural products to other regions.
Through this TANDI application, of course it is expected to be able to
improve the economy of rural communities who make a living in agriculture. So
that people from rural areas do not need to go all the way to big cities, like Jakarta
to find a decent livelihood. In this way, future prosperity will be created throughout
Indonesia.
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