Jakarta, December 19, 2023 – As the largest fertilizer company in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and North Africa, PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) continues to strive to encourage the birth of various innovative breakthroughs to enhance competitiveness and contribution in the global fertilizer industry. Therefore, Pupuk Indonesia once again organized the FertInnovation Challenge 2023 for the fourth time with the theme "Fostering Innovation Towards Sustainable Agriculture." FertInnovation is a biannual national competition that serves as a platform for innovators in the field of agriculture and agro-industry.

FertInnovation Challenge 2023 is designed to address various new challenges for the fertilizer and agriculture industry in Indonesia, arising from climate change phenomena and the instability of the global supply chain. In an effort to face these challenges, Pupuk Indonesia realizes the importance of continuously promoting innovation and sustainable collaboration with various stakeholders, especially by strengthening the Penta Helix collaboration involving the government, academia, business players, society, and the media, to continue empowering the fertilizer and petrochemical industry in the country.

Rahmad Pribadi, the President Director of Pupuk Indonesia, also appreciates the significant participation of the community, especially from universities, professionals, research institutions, and startups in generating new innovations in the fertilizer industry by joining the FertInnovation Challenge 2023.

"As a company of very large scale, we also need to adapt. Growth cannot be achieved without acquiring new knowledge and skills. Through the FertInnovation Challenge 2023, we hope for the emergence of new innovations. And of course, we cannot conduct research alone, so there are many potentials in Indonesia that are worth collaborating with to accelerate the innovations in Pupuk Indonesia."

FertInnovation Challenge 2023 has been a national competition since 2016. The competition is open to all external parties and in 2023 managed to attract 385 innovation teams. The event received nearly 1000 registrations from all over Indonesia, consisting of professionals, academics, and startups.

This competition focuses on four main categories: Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer, Sustainable Fertilizer Industry, Precision Agriculture Technology, and Agri Challenge. From hundreds of entries, FertInnovation Challenge 2023 has successfully determined 5 winners from each category and also awarded the Best Innovation for each category.

In this FertInnovation Challenge 2023, hundreds of innovators compete to present sustainable innovations. For example, the innovation proposed by Ditya Garda Nugraha, a student from Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology. Ditya introduced a machine learning-based robot that has the potential to optimize productivity and efficiency in fertilization on oil palm plantations. This innovation is an effort to address the challenges of the palm oil industry by using technology to meet market needs and realize the era of smart farming 4.0. The prototype of this innovation has undergone market testing and received positive responses.

On this occasion, Pupuk Indonesia has also engaged internal and external company juries, including various experts from universities and competent stakeholders in agriculture and petrochemicals who have contributed to evaluating and determining the Top Innovators. Pupuk Indonesia also welcomes the best agricultural innovators in the nation who participated in the FertInnovation Challenge 2023. Through synergy with the Indonesian Fertilizer Research Institute (IFRI), the FertInnovation research incubation fund reached IDR 2 billion, providing opportunities for innovation champions to develop their research ideas together with Pupuk Indonesia.

All categories in the FertInnovation Challenge 2023 are designed with the main goal of creating an agricultural ecosystem that integrates technology to realize farming practices that are not only more efficient and environmentally friendly but also sustainable. Research activities include the development of customer-centric fertilizer products aimed at supporting sustainable agricultural solutions (Agro Solution). Pupuk Indonesia also advocates for public policy related to fertilizer use to create sustainable agriculture while increasing Indonesia's agricultural productivity.

"I express my gratitude to the jury who have been kind enough to attend and have made extraordinary contributions. These juries play a crucial role in ensuring that every top-notch innovation deserving to be crowned as a champion can be applied to bring progress to the company, the nation, and the country of Indonesia. Let's give the best appreciation to the Top Innovator of the FertInnovation Challenge 2023. And with this, I also invite everyone to be ready to participate again in the coming years, to continue generating sustainable innovations for the more advanced Indonesia," Rahmad concluded."