M-GREEN Team Won 1st Prize of Agricultural Machinery Design in SUPERNATURE 5
By Holy Lovenia
Editor Holy Lovenia
BANDUNG, itb.ac.id – By demonstrating their knowledge and showing their concern for Indonesia as an agrarian country, M-GREEN Team from ITB won the first prize in Supremacy Festival of National Agricultural Engineering (SUPERNATURE) 5 on Agriculture Machine Design. The team, comprised of Tegar Pangestu Budi Utomo (Mechanical Engineering 2015), Mochammad Miftahul Fahmi (Mechanical Engineering 2015), and M. Azzam Muzakki (Mechanical Engineering 2015) won the competition held by Universitas Padjadjaran (UNPAD) with their work, Tray Pot Seeder, a seeder that works mechanically without electricity or fuel.
The Obstacle
The agricultural machinery design was participated by associate/bachelor degree students from various universities in Indonesia, with the maximum of 3 students in each group. SUPERNATURE 5 entered the initial selection—proposal selection—in September 2017. After selection, only 7 teams went to the final phase, the prototype making and its presentation. Those prototypes were then displayed in one of the biggest event in Faculty of Agricultural Industrial Technology (FTIP) UNPAD.
Idea brainstorming, proposal writing, prototype design, and making pretty much everything from basic structure were all conducted by M-GREEN Team. Every team member had each crucial role, and they worked together and supported each other. Besides preparing the proposal and prototype, Tegar, Fahmi, and Azzam also made the presentation so that their ideas could be delivered better.
Tray Pot Seeder
Until today, seeds raising and planting are done manually by sowing the seeds one by one in to polybag. Unfortunately, polybag is a disposable good, so that in the end of seeds raising process farmers has to dispose of the polybag. The polybag disposal will add the number of waste. Moreover, that seeds raising and planting processes are not efficient for massive activity.
Responding to that issue, M-Green Team create Tray Pot Seeder, a mechanical device for seeding that aims to enhance farmers’ productivity, especially in seeds raising and planting. The uniqueness of Tray Pot Seeder is its capability to operate without electricity or fuel.
To put it simply, Tray Pot Seeder allows farmers to plant seeds by moving only a lever that let seeds fall into seeds injector, which will open so that the seed can get in to the pot. The seeding pot is reusable unlike polybag and is also easy to find in market. With its mechanism that do not need fuel and electricity, Tray Pot Seeder will support the work of farmers with relatively low cost. Moreover, Tray Pot Seeder supports sustainable farming that support ecology (eco-friendly), economy (low cost for Indonesian farmers), and social.
Simple Work
Fahmi, one of M-GREEN Team members gave a message to fellow friends everywhere. “Deliver your idea as best as you can, even if it seems very simple. Because, the solution to problems in Indonesia does not necessarily need advanced or modern technology. What Indonesia need is technology that is suitable for the people.”
