Agricultural Revolution 4.0
Saanah, a farm laborer in Bojongsari, Depok, West Java, accesses the "Farmer" application downloaded on android, Friday (08/05/2015). "Farmer" is a virtual counseling application that contains articles and questions and answers to various issues on agriculture.
Professor at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture ( IPB); General Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Seed Bank Farming Technology (AB2TI) and CORE Indonesia
Over the last one year, there have been a large number of seminars and reviews, including in Kompas, on the impact of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 on agriculture.
The Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) at the opening of its 55th Anniversary on September 1, 2018, also took the theme "Agriculture 4.0 for Food Sovereignty". Agriculture 4.0 seems to be a magic bullet to solve the problems of agriculture and food for humanity in the future. Is that right? Not only in Indonesia, Agriculture 4.0 is also an important program in a number of developing countries, whose economies are growing rapidly. Vietnam, which has experienced a period of high agricultural growth over the past 30 years since Doi Moi in 1989, has also begun to adopt Agriculture 4.0 in its programs and policies (Dung and Hiep, 2017).
Besides achieving self-sufficiency, the food sector in Vietnam currently contributes about US$30 billion in annual exports or 23-25 percent of total exports and 22 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Such a fast agricultural growth model must be driven through an extensification motor, high energy input consumption, which is followed by the erosion of natural resources. As a result, the rate of production increase begins to stagnate. In this context, Agriculture 4.0 seems to be the answer to ensure agriculture continues to grow while maintaining the quality and carrying capacity of the environment amid limited resources.
Industrial and Agricultural Revolution 4.0
The Industrial Revolution 4.0 which underlies the emergence of the idea of Agriculture 4.0 was initiated by Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum, which proclaimed the entrance of the 4th Industrial Revolution, which is characterized by the fusion of various technologies that blurs the boundary between the physical, digital and biological worlds (Schwab 2017). Unfortunately until now there has not been any definition which is generally accepted with regard to the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (Lee and friends 2018). Previously, the Industrial Revolution 3.0 focused on a paradigm shift from a fossil fuel-based society to a society which is based on alternative and renewable energy.
When speaking about the Industrial Revolution 4.0 now, the reality shows that Industry 3.0 is still limited to mere rhetoric. Until now the world community is still a fossil energy-based society. The contribution of alternative and renewable energy is only 10.3 percent (if reduced by the traditional biomass combustion energy) (REN21, 2016), a very small increase compared to 14 years ago which was at 8.0 percent.
Industry 4.0 is built based on an assumption and recent development in the horizontal expansion of digital technology, including cyber-physical system (CPSs), internet of thinks (IoT), big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, and practical aspects that follow, including "smart factories", 3D printing, automation, organization, cooperation, mobility, distribution, market, and openness of digital-based innovations (Digital Transformation Monitor 201.7 Lee 2018).
Unfortunately, when information technology (IT) starts to dominate nearly all industries, it does not produce the expected economic performance because it is followed by acceleration of inequality. This is in contrast to the Industrial Revolution 2.0, which was based on the discovery of combustion engines, electricity, and factory automation, which has succeeded in changing the face of the world economy due to increased efficiency and productivity.
The term Industrial Revolution 4.0 is later, without much thinking, quickly adopted in the world of agriculture and food with a definition that is increasingly blurred until the term "Agriculture 4.0" emerges. The phase of the revolution in the agricultural world is divided similar to the phase of revolution in the industrial world, which is actually not known in the agricultural world. The agricultural development is divided into Agriculture 1.0 in the early 20th century, followed by Agriculture 2.0 when the "Green Revolution" appeared in the late 1950s. Agriculture 3.0 is characterized by precision agriculture and the use of GPS (global positioning system), which at that time was only owned by the military. Agriculture 4.0 arises later due to very rapid development in sensor technique, microprocessor, communication, ICT system based on cloud and big data (CEMA 2017).
Agriculture 4.0 relies on robots, sensors, real time digital maps related to water condition, soil nutrients and even pests for accurate application for water, fertilizer and pesticides, and more optimal utilization of solar and sea water energy to produce food. Several companies have begun to develop hydroponic systems and vertical agriculture based on seawater and solar energy. Others develop micro algae cultivation to replace fish flour. In the field of biotechnology, besides the classical genetic engineering, there is also CRISPR (clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeat) technology, which is being developed to edit plant genes, development of meat without the butcher through animal cell culture and 3D printing to produce food made from micro algae.
Various new technologies are being and will be used in the agricultural field, including IoT, remote control of planting, data-based agriculture, chatbots to help farmers solve various problems on the planning for planting up to the monitoring of the planting. Agriculture 4.0 is also marked by the utilization of nano particles for fertilization and pest control and biocensors for precision agriculture (World Government Summit 2018).
The term Agricultural 4.0 is actually not quite appropriate to be compared with the Industry 4.0 concept. The parameters in the process of agricultural production are very different from industrial processes. Agricultural production is largely determined by biological and natural factors. Nature, biology and genetics have their own world which has evolved over billions of years to the present condition. Of course this condition cannot easily be changed according to the will of humans who are the youngest inhabitants of the span of its evolutionary period.
It is impossible for us to produce food by combining all the chemical and energy elements available in nature. Food is still produced by plants, animals, and other living things, both in the past, at present and forever. The food production process will also be carried out by farmers, both in a large, medium and small scale, and almost all of them will continue to use the soil as a the main growing media.
Agriculture 4.0 in the Indonesian context
It is estimated that through Agriculture 4.0 world food producing countries consisting of developed countries in the north and parts of the south (Australia) will increasingly dominate agriculture and food. Countries with the population having high education, low energy costs, where their governments
continue to encourage public-private cooperation, will become world leaders in the Agriculture 4.0 era (World Government Summit 2018). This is further strengthened by the usual practices of developed countries to provide extraordinary protection to their farmers and pour in huge amounts of agricultural and food subsidy funds. Agriculture 4.0 has the potential to increase inequality between developed and developing countries in the food and agriculture sectors.
In the Indonesian context, Agriculture 4.0 also has the same currency side as the global context. So far, small farmers become a party which is almost always eliminated when opportunities are created due to new discoveries or developments in the field of innovation and technology. Their capacity in utilizing the innovation or new technology is always left behind by other community groups so that farmers are ultimately only used to increase profits of the capital owners and technological authorities.
In the agricultural system pyramid in Indonesia, 26.14 million (currently estimated at only 24.12 million) are farm households (ST 2013), which consist of small farmers, farmer families, traditional farmers, and farm laborers, representing around 90 million Indonesian people at the bottom of the pyramid with the lowest chance to take advantage of every existing technological progress. The peak of the pyramid is inhabited by very few people, consisting of national/trans-national agribusinesses, educated people in the agricultural sector, investors and big entrepreneurs, importers, food industries, and speculators. The top group in the pyramid of the agricultural system will certainly enjoy the Agriculture 4.0 era. Therefore, the provisional conclusion that the Industrial Revolution 4.0 is expected to accelerate inequality will become increasingly apparent on our agriculture.
Agriculture 4.0 is characterized by capital intensive and takes a long time to return the capital. In this regard, the Government of Vietnam, for example, offers a cheap interest loan package of $4.4 million for companies that develop clean and high-tech agriculture with the target of establishing 200 high-tech agricultural businesses by 2020 (Dung and Hiep 2017). This example further justifies the direction and alignment of Agriculture 4.0, which is increasingly distanced from the interests of small farmers who have experienced major problems because of the lack of access to capital and other productive resources.
Therefore, the promise, that the Agricultural Revolution 4.0 will give leverage to the lowest layers of society as frequently disclosed by many experts and academics, will probably end only in rhetoric or claims. Land consolidation and the management of large-scale food agriculture as a prerequisite for Agriculture 4.0 have the potential to reduce the productivity and welfare of farmers in developing countries as shown by the result of a study by The Levy Economics Institute, New York, which found the inverse size-yield relationship phenomenon (Ünal 2008).
Indonesia needs to make improvement so that Agriculture 4.0 really benefits small farmers. The increase in the proportion of progressive young farmers amidst the reality of the decline in the number of young farmers is a homework and common challenge. IT literacy at the farm level is another challenge that needs to be overcome amid the bias of using IT away from agriculture. Price protection at the farm level to attract agricultural business entrepreneurship collides with a policy of the cheap food regime and misdirected subsidy and assistance policies. The most important requirement is the economic-political reorientation to reverse the pyramid of agricultural system in Indonesia to be more democratic. If various requirements are provided, all will end up in piles of beautiful papers with high volumes in universities, R&D, ministries, or National Developing Board (Bappenas). Hopefully small farmer will not be increasingly marginalized and crushed by ideas and large waves that are still premature in the Agriculture 4.0.
Pembenahan perlu dilakukan oleh Indonesia sehingga Pertanian 4.0 benar-benar memberi kemanfaatan bagi petani kecil. Peningkatan proporsi petani muda progresif di tengah kenyataan penurunan jumlah
petani muda menjadi tugas rumah dan tantangan bersama. Literasi TI hingga di tingkat usaha tani menjadi tantangan lain yang perlu diatasi di tengah bias penggunaan TI yang menjauhi dunia pertanian.
Perlindungan harga di tingkat usaha tani untuk menarik kewiraswastaan usaha pertanian terbentur dengan kebijakan rezim pangan murah dan kebijakan subsidi dan bantuan yang salah arah. Syarat terpenting adalah reorientasi ekonomi-politik untuk membalikkan piramida sistem pertanian di
Indonesia agar lebih demokratis. Bila berbagai syarat perlu itu tak diupayakan, semua akan berakhir di tumpukan kertas indah berjilid-jilid di perguruan tinggi, litbang, kementerian, ataupun Bappenas.
Semoga sedulur tani kecil tidak kian termarjinalkan dan terempas oleh ide dan gelombang besar yang masih prematur ala Pertanian 4.0. (Dwi Andreas Santosa, Professor, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB); General Chairman, Indonesian Farmers Seed Bank Association (AB2TI) and CORE Indonesia)
