As an archipelagic country, Indonesia has enormous fishing economic potential. However, few entrepreneurs have invested in their businesses by advancing them through technology.

The majority of entrepreneurs continue to acquire and sell fish in the traditional manner. Gibran Huzaifah, the founder of eFishery and an ITB graduate in aquaculture, seeks to change that.

Gibran defined aquaculture as a fishing enterprise that can facilitate the fish production process that does not rely on a restricted number of marine harvests. "When compared to chicken or beef, aquaculture products are the most efficient source of animal protein for production," he said.

Fish can create 61 kilograms of meat from 100 kilograms of feed, whereas poultry only produces 21 kilograms of meat, and cattle only produces 10 kilograms. Aquaculture is 80 percent more resource-efficient in this case. Furthermore, aquaculture goods are far more environmentally beneficial. "The carbon footprint is 15 times lower than that of beef," said Gibran.

Gibran met with fellow co-founder Chrisna Aditya after starting catfish farming to establish eFishery. Gibran recognizes that numerous problems must be overcome when launching an eFishery.

"One of the major challenges that must be overcome is the management of feed, which is the fundamental difficulty in fish farming," he said. "Feed accounts for more than 80 percent of overall production expenditures; however, traditional hand-feeding methods are unproductive, costly, and harmful. So, Chrisna and I were resolved to create a solution that could solve this problem."

Another obstacle is introducing technology to growers who are not as technologically savvy as persons in metropolitan regions. "At first, I had to go back and forth, going directly to farmers and convincing them to try the technology that eFishery delivered," he said.

Finally, the cultivators agreed to give it a shot, not because they were interested in the technology, but because they felt sorry for me. Because cultivators rarely use the internet daily, the process of introducing our IoT-based technology is also quite tricky. Previously, during the tool's launch, eFishery even organized an Internet 101 session to teach farmers how to send an email, watch YouTube, and use Facebook, among other things.

Primary source of animal protein

When it comes to vision, eFishery aspires to make aquaculture the world's primary source of animal protein. Gibran and his team hope to disrupt the $9.4 billion Indonesian aquaculture business, which currently remains unexplored.

eFishery has three missions: to feed the world through aquaculture, solve fundamental problems using low-cost technology, and reduce inequality by developing a truly inclusive digital economy. eFishery has evolved from the technology produced into an end-to-end ecosystem that gives farmers access to technology, feed and money, and markets.

According to Gibran, a successful firm is profitable, fair, sustainable, and positively impacts society and the environment. He hopes that eFishery will fulfill its missions and contribute to the country in the future, making Indonesia the largest aquaculture producing country globally, surpassing China, and assisting in accelerating aquaculture to become the world's most important source of animal protein.