(from left) Nur Muhammad ‘Ainul Yaqin, Barhan Akmal Falahudin, Abd. Wahid, members of the Garamin team, took a group photo when they won 3rd place in the 2021 Maritime Hackathon

ITS Campus, ITS News – Indonesia has potential related to its position as the second country with the longest coastline in the world. However, in the sea salt production sector, several productivity problems must be faced. Finding solutions for salt farmers, students of the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) developed an e-cooperative salt farmer application named Garamin.

This creative idea was developed by three ITS Informatics Engineering Department students, namely Barhan Akmal Falahudin, Abd Wahid, and Nur Muhammad ‘Ainul Yaqin. This idea is rooted in the anxiety faced to facilitate salt farmers in overcoming difficulties in distribution. “The purpose of this facilitation is to make the government self-sufficient in salt through local salt products,” said Barhan Akmal Falahudin, who is often called Akmal.

Barhan Akmal Falahudin, as team leader showed Garamin, an application made by his team.

As a team leader, Akmal said, the application has several superior features, including cooperative management, notification of dues and announcements to salt farmers, to educational features to improve the salt production process. “The application design is easy to understand and small in size so that users can use it smoothly,” he said.

Further explained, the application development process lasts for nine days, starting with research on problems in the maritime field and determining ideas. Then, the process is continued with the UI / UX design, API Specification until the finalization of the application. “As second-semester students, one of the difficulties we face is how to prepare an application properly,” he admitted.

The dashboard display of the cooperative on the Garamin application, the work of the ITS student team

Regarding the implementation, Akmal said there were two target users, namely the management and members of the cooperative. Administrators can add income and expenses, provide announcements and notification of dues payment to members, and upload educational materials. On the member side, they can monitor the cooperative’s finances, get information and education, and notify contribution payments.

The student of 2020 added several reasons for the main focus to turn on the salt farmer production distribution cooperative. One of them is to shorten the distribution chain of salt produced by salt farmers so that the profits received by salt farmers increase. “Farmers do not need to worry if difficult times come because the profits have been managed by the cooperative,” he said.

Display educational features for salt farmers on the Garamin application, the work of the ITS student team

In terms of several aspects, this work won third place in the 2021 Maritime Hackathon by the Navy Maritime Potential Development Service (Dispotmaral) of the Indonesian Navy some time ago. The competition was also recorded in the MURI Record as the first hackathon aboard a warship in Indonesia.

Apart from feeling proud, the Garamin team hopes that their application can help salt farming activities in Indonesia and also increase their economic level on a cooperative basis. Evaluation of several features will continue to be carried out and developed to provide the best service for salt farmers. “In the future, not only in the maritime sphere but similar applications are also expected to be developed in agricultural and fisheries environments,” concluded Akmal hopefully. (far/ITS Public Relations)

The display features accessed by the cooperative on the Garamin application, the work of the ITS student team.

Reporter: Faadhillah Syhab Azzahra