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Indonesian farmers need business mindset: PISAgro
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Golden Agri-Resources chairman and chief executive officer Franky Widjaja (left to right), Global Initiatives CEO Tony Gourlay, and Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development president Shinta Kamdani, address a press conference on the sidelines of the 2017 Responsible Business Forum on Food and Agriculture in Jakarta on Mar. 14. (JP/Stefani Ribka)
T
o sustain agriculture and increase crop productivity, big firms are being urged to not only trade with farmers but also to coach them in good agriculture practices and business management.
“Indonesian farmers need to have a business mindset just like Australian farmers so they can develop the sector better. They need to be at the center of the stage. We need to fix their management and agriculture practices by creating better partnerships,” said Franky Widjaja, Partnership for Indonesia Sustainable Agriculture (PISAgro) cochairman during the 2017 Responsible Business Forum (RBF) on Tuesday.
Most of the 40 million workers in the agriculture sector are small farmers with low productivity and profitability levels as a result of lengthy supply chains and a lack of access to financing, according to PISAgro’s research.
Assistance to farmers can be made through teaching better planting and replanting methods, fertilizer use, trade-traceability systems using technology and real-time price information to ensure fair profit margins for farmers
PISAgro members, which include dairy firm Nestle Indonesia and diversified consumer product firm Unilever Indonesia, are working on mutually beneficial partnerships with small farmers. The group of businesspeople and non-profit organizations has called on more firms to join the efforts. (ags)
