Departing from that problem, a group of ITB students initiate MAREMA in July 2017 as a business in affordable organic vegetables for healthier Indonesia. MAREMA is a tenant in Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (LPIK) ITB.

The initiators are Fauzan Naufal Ramadhan, Naufal Nafian, Hammad Muhamad Irfantoro, Ferdian Satria Mulya, Egi Setiawan, Sofya Restu, and Camilla Nissa. They develop a method to grow high quality organic vegetables with affordable price. MAREMA currently develop two projects, hydroponic and open field farm.

“Hydroponic here uses aquatic system and does not use pesticide fertilizer. Hence it is zero pesticide and uses nutrients that are not harmful, while the open field farm is still using conventional technique. The hydroponic is harvestable every day because there is a planting schedule to meet the need of the market. The open field farm does not yet meet the need of the market but we try to make planting schedule like in hydroponic,” said Camilla Nisa as Chief Marketing Officer of MAREMA.

There are 11 varieties of hydroponic products, they are Romain Lettuce, Pagoda, Endive, Lolorosa Lettuce, Kale, Rocket, Butterhead lettuce, Siomak, Ipomoea aquatica, Spinach, dan Japanese Spinach.

MAREMA use Cibodas and Sukajaya as the place for development. Hydroponic is applied on Cibodas while the open field is applied on Sukajaya. Treatment on the field is carried out by local farmers. Despite starting their project during their university years, they do not back down in developing a business in agriculture. They ‘chip in’ to rent a land until an angel investor give them one.

“We hope the life in villages gets improved even without the development of hydroponic and openfield firm and that everyone can enjoy it,” said Fauzan Naufal, CEO of MAREMA.

Reporter: Diah Rachmawati