The chances are that a predominant portion of food you relished for breakfast today has come from smallholder farmers. In Indonesia, 93 percent of all farmers are smallholders, whose landholding averages a modest 0.6 hectares. For comparison, the average farm size in the United States is 180 ha. Such small landholding often makes them vulnerable to economic shocks and least prepared for the era of climate change. Almost one-fifth of the smallholder farmers in Indonesia already lives below the national poverty line. This must change. Transforming smallholder agriculture is vital for Indonesia’s economic growth, sustainability and food security. It is, nonetheless, a challenging endeavor. Many variables that affect smallholders are beyond their control, such as the price that they get for their produce and the vagaries of weather. Controllable variables such as yield improvemen...

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