PT Agrisoft Systems Indonesia: Agrisoft Systems Company Profile

1.1. Location

The main office of PT Agrisoft-Systems Indonesia (Agrisoft-Systems) is located in Yogyakarta, DIY, Indonesia. The company was founded in 1998 by Armin Gfroerer Kerstan.

2.1. Business facts

PT Agrisoft-Systems Indonesia is the developer and vender of agricultural data management software and information and expert systems. We also develop custom made DBMS and GIS solutions and specialist systems according to customer specifications.

Since our first OMP-AMIS plantation management programmes were installed in Sumatra more than 10 years ago, Agrisoft-Systems has experienced a continuous, yearly growth of the customer base, and to date the software is licensed for about half a million hectare of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.

Our customers are national and multinational plantation companies and food producers, like Cargill USA, Sipef Belgium, the Malaysian Kulim Group, or Bumitama Gunajaya Agro from Indonesia, as well as a number of medium sized companies or institutes, like the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), DAMI oil palm research station, or the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

3.1. Business environment

Any large scale agricultural activity changes the environment, but the plantation industry, especially in Indonesia due to the huge area extensions during the last decade, frequently finds itself in the hot seat for converting primary forest into oil palm estates, endangering biodiversity, and contributing to global warming, in particular through the conversion of deep peat soils.

Consumer organizations and more and more end users demand transparency over the whole production cycle and insist on a detailed ‘proof of activity’ and on socially and ecologically acceptable production methods.

In addition, the industry as a whole is consistently underperforming by harvesting only about half of the site-specific yield potential of the areas currently planted with oil palm, and has still an enormous scope for improvement.

Many of the leading companies are aware of the problems and move towards good management standards, agro-ecological long term sustainability, social acceptance and eco-labelling, and increased productivity.

Agrisoft-Systems develop the software tools required to analyse, implement and monitor the necessary management inputs at estate and field level. Our agricultural management information systems (AMIS) offer data management and GIS solutions for plantation crops, which set the industry standard for precision management in large scale commercial operations.

Our customer base are all companies who want to make the move towards increased productivity with sustainable production methods, and need the tools to manage the data and information for the practical field level implementation.

4.1. Products & Services

Our main product is the OMP-AMIS^{^[1]} information system for agronomy data management and precision agriculture in oil palm plantations. A similar crop specific package is available as JMP-AMIS for Jatropha plantings (biofuel).

The whole software line includes modules to manage the typical physical data and performance parameters for all production stages: seed production and tissue culture, nursery management, and the whole life cycle during field planting.

The AMIS software is licensed to the end-user and supported by long term maintenance agreements, on-site trainings and user workshops.

The strength of our products is our open development concept. Solutions are developed in close cooperation with agronomists and technical services of our customers and with contributions from individual scientists, who are involved in the design and development steps and extensive field testing.

As a result, our software is easy to use and works under field conditions. The system provides relevant, usable information to agronomists, technical advisors and estate managers

The database can be adjusted to varying site-specific conditions and parameters in different locations, and fits for different organizational management structures.

The installation is scaleable, from a single Windows PC to the server based Enterprise edition for a corporate network.

The AMIS software is designed to support advanced field management concepts, like planting by progeny, yield profiles and site-specific productivity parameters, yield gap analysis for maximum economic yield targets, and various best management practices (BMP) for nutrient management, harvesting and field upkeep tasks.

It covers integrated pest management (IPM), planning and tracking of chemicals and crop residue inputs, and soil protection. Many standard reports and maps in AMIS can be directly used for RSPO[2] and ISO 14001 auditing and certification.

Agrisoft-Systems take as well regularly part in the scientific discussion during industry conferences, and we have published a number of technical and scientific papers on data processing methods for yield improvement and sustainability.

Currently, Agrisoft-Systems support long term BMP trial projects in 5 locations in Malaysia and Indonesia in a programme carried out by the International Plant Nutrition Institute IPNI, and a micro organism project by Teknik Istimewa Sdn Bhd (both Malaysia).

Beside our plantation software, we develop custom made database and GIS programmes for project management and impact monitoring (GTZ German-Indonesian technical cooperation) and decision support systems (IRRI, PPI).

5.1. Personnel

Agrisoft-Systems have currently (March 2009) a permanent staff of 20 people with the following responsibilities and positions:

Company management
Director Utama Armin Gfroerer Kerstan	Director Agronomy Thomas Fairhurst	Komisaris Utama Sukirah	Komisaris Max Kerstan
Chief of development; Science and agronomy	Science and agronomy; high level customer support	Finance & Accounting	Controlling
Office management, marketing and customer relations
AS-Staff:	4 positions
Scientific and technical design & Software project management
AS-Staff	6 positions
Software development and programming, training, documentation
AS-Staff	6 positions

6.1. Publications

Thomas Fairhurst, Ian Rankine, Armin Gfroerer Kerstan, Vince McAleer, Clive Taylor and William Griffiths

A Conceptual Framework for Precision Agriculture in Oil Palm Plantations

in: Thomas Fairhurst, Rolf Härdter (ed.)
Oil Palm: Management for Large and Sustainable Yields. Singapore (2003)

William Griffiths, Thomas Fairhurst, Ian Rankine, Armin Gfroerer Kerstan, and Clive Taylor

Identification and elimination of yield gaps in oil palm. Use of OMP7 and GIS
In: International Oil Palm Conference, Bali, Indonesia, 8-12 July 2002

Rankine, I. R., Gfroerer-Kerstan, A., Kuruvilla, J. and Fairhurst, T. (2001)

OMP7 - A Field History and Mapping Facility.
The Planter, 77, (899), 79-92.

Thomas Fairhurst, Ian Rankine, Armin Gfroerer Kerstan, Vince McAleer, Clive Taylor and William Griffiths

Concepts for Precision Plantation Management
The Oil Palm. Management for Large and Sustainable Yields, Singapore 2003

Fairhurst, T., Gfroerer-Kerstan, A., Rankine, I. R. and Kuruvilla, K. J. (2000)

Use of Geographical Information Systems in Plantation Agriculture: Linking Digital Maps to Agronomic Database Sets.
In: Pushparajah, E. (ed.) International Planters Conference 2000. The Incorporated Society of Planters, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 17-20 May 2000, pp.755-767

T.H. Fairhurst, Armin Gfroerer-Kerstan and Ian Rankine

PPI/PPIC Nutrient Management Services for Oil Palm
In: Better Crops International Vol. 13, No. 1, May 1999