The Agricultural Engineering Study Program, Faculty of Agriculture, Unhas held a Public Lecture in the context of the Independent Campus Competition Program (PKKM). Present as a speaker, Dr. Wanrat Abdullakasim from the Department of Agricultural Engineering Kasetsart University Thailand and Prof Ts. Dr. Hajah Rosnah Shamsudin from the Department of Process and Food Engineering. Putra University Malaysia. The activity took place from 13.00 WITA until finished (6/9).
Starting the activity, Dr. Ir. Mahmud Achmad, MP as moderator introduced the profiles of the two speakers and the topics that would be discussed. He said that the topic that would be discussed was very important for agricultural students, especially the Agricultural Engineering Study Program.
“I think today’s topic is too good to miss because our resource person today will discuss this topic Smart Agriculture and Palm Oil Processing. “We all hope that today we can share new ideas and views with each other,” he said.
Dr Wanrat expressed his appreciation for the warm welcome from the Faculty of Agriculture, Unhas. He said that it was an honor for him to be able to stand up to present material related to his field of expertise. The hope is that the material he presents can bring students to know more about their field of science.
“Smart agriculture Basically, it is the use of technology in the agricultural sector. “The agricultural data collected will be loaded into a platform and control will be assisted by tools so that farmers no longer have to carry out periodic checks manually,” he explained.
Furthermore, he added that the reason was bringing up the topic of smart agriculture because the climate in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, is relatively similar, namely tropical. It was also noted that the market value of the results of using the method of smart farming in Thailand showed a significant increase.
Prof. Rosnah said in her material about palm oil processing that palm oil production can benefit various parties starting from palm tree growers, workers in production fields and refineries, and profits for the government because the results can be sold to other countries.
“However, the main problem in Malaysia is the lack of natural palm oil resources. That’s why when Covid-19 occurred, palm oil production decreased because imports of palm oil raw materials from Indonesia stopped,” she stated.
Prof. Rosnah also added that the second problem faced was the presence of pests that attacked oil palm trees, causing many oil palm trees to die. At the end of his presentations, she said that it was possible that today’s guest lecture could produce collaborative ideas from concepts smart farming which was presented by Dr Wanrat previously to overcome the problems still being faced.
Copyright © 2022 Fakultas Pertanian | Universitas Hasanuddin
