JALA
Using tech to improve shrimp-pond water quality
Indonesia is the world’s third-largest shrimp producer. Maintaining the water quality of shrimp ponds is essential to improving the sustainability of aquaculture — and the profitability. In addition to environmental pollution risks, degraded water quality can cause producers to abandon their current ponds and to cut down vital mangrove forests to build new ponds. Despite producing 75 percent of Indonesia’s total annual shrimp production, the country’s smallholder shrimp farmers often lack access to monitoring tools to assess the water quality of their ponds.
THE COMPANY
JALA, a woman-led, Indonesian-owned technology start-up, has developed cost-effective water-quality monitoring tools to enable smallholder aquaculture producers to manage pond environmental conditions in real-time.
THE INVESTMENT
A 5-year, US$ 150,000 loan enables commercial production of water-quality monitoring hardware and software solutions that address the unique needs of smallholder aquaculture farms.
THE IMPACT
JALA holds potential to significantly contribute to the ecological sustainability of a prominent and growing shrimp aquaculture sector in Indonesia and other major shrimp-producing regions in Southeast Asia. The technology platform enables shrimp producers to manage water quality conditions — a major factor in avoiding losses in productivity, preventing disease incidence and mitigating environmental pollution risks. There is potential for the JALA tools to be used in other important aquaculture production regions where Conservation International works.