How FisTx Solves the Core Problem of Shrimp Farms through Technology

It is no secret that the aquaculture industry in Indonesia is full of classic issues, thus making it not as sexy as other real and non-real industries. These constraints affect the running of aquaculture activities in this country.

In fact, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, Indonesia is ranked 2nd out of the top 10 countries for aquaculture production. Even though it is in the top position, the total amount of aquaculture production in this country is very much different from China.

In 2019, aquaculture production in China was 68.42 million tons per year, while Indonesia’s was 15.89 million tons. In fact, China’s coastline that can be used for cultivation is only 14,500 km, while Indonesia’s is 99,083 km.

Kiwi Aliwarga and Rico Wibisono, with deep backgrounds in the world of aquaculture, tried to solve this classic issue by establishing FisTx (pronounced Fis-tech) in Yogyakarta in 2019.

Kiwi himself is a successful diaspora entrepreneur building a business in Myanmar. In the startup scene, Kiwi built UMG Idealab which is the investment arm of UMG Myanmar.

Its portfolio is spread across the region, not only in Indonesia, starting from Aruna, Crowde, Botika, Prosehat, My Nurse, Arutala, and others. Meanwhile, Rico Wibisono had an interest in the world of fisheries from childhood until finally continuing in college.

Then, he entered this industry by working for various companies at CP Prima, Manggalindo, and several projects outside Indonesia, namely in Vietnam, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Brunei Darussalam working on shrimp farming projects.

“Our interest in aquaculture continues us to develop sustainable fisheries technology focusing on the 3Ps (profit, people, planet),” said Rico Wibisono, Co-founder and COO of FisTx.

FisTx Innovation

FisTx highlighted that there are at least four challenges in shrimp pond cultivation, namely pond management, operations, ponds, and nature, for example choosing pond locations that are prone to natural disasters, such as tsunamis and earthquakes.

Therefore, FisTx focuses on developing technology for shrimp farming in a more sustainable water improvement process. Next, bring technology for feed additives to increase nutrient absorption, resulting in faster growth and less waste.

“All of these technologies are aimed at the sustainability and welfare of the farmers. The development process depends on the availability of resources and market needs, some can take three to eight months.”

An application called FisTx Aquagram is also provided, which can be used by farmers to monitor the condition of the ponds directly from their cellphones.

The application is a water quality measurement technology that can record water quality in real-time, not only for one pond plot but also for monitoring four plots at once.

Farmers will obtain information related to the duration of feeding, feeding time intervals, oxygen levels, to temperature and water acidity levels.

In one sensor tool, is capable of measuring various indicators. Some of them, are pool water temperature, EC, pH value, DO (Dissolved Oxygen or dissolved oxygen levels), and ORP (Oxidation Reduction Potential). All this data will appear in the FisTx application in one click.

Adapting to the Needs of Farmers

Of the entire range of products, FisTx re-adjusts to the needs of farmers. His party provides FisTx 360 which is a subscription system to assist all cultivation needs, assisting farmers with consultation and pond management during one cycle, from preparation to harvest.

“But we also provide a drop-out system, especially for our consumers who have not been reached by the offline team, but we remain open to online consultations.”

Rico admits that the educational process in introducing the Fistx solution cannot be taken lightly. Because the positive interest is only received by the company if the location of the pond and the persona of the farmer is seen from the psychology and psychography.

Therefore, when entering a new location, the company takes a strategy of finding early adopters and being escorted until satisfactory yields appear.

“From there, there was mouth-to-mouth branding, this is what we did in responding to that. Alhamdulillah, so far we have 340 farmers spread across 21 provinces.”