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Govt goes digital to boost farm productivity, welfare
Small farmers face long-standing problems, including difficulties in accessing credit, fertilizers, seeds and even markets for their goods
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mall farmers face long-standing problems, including difficulties in accessing credit, fertilizers, seeds and even markets for their goods.
Most farmers still use poor farming management systems and conventional methods, which prevents them from producing optimal crops.
To help farmers improve management and productivity, the government has introduced a digitalization and entrepreneurship program.
Initiated by the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Ministry, the program will be run in collaboration with several SOEs from various sectors, such as communications and technology, agriculture, banks and logistics, with each SOE having a different role.
Digitalization plays a prominent role in the program, with state-owned telecommunications firm PT Telkom Indonesia serving as the provider of a digital agriculture logistics platform called Logtan.
Logtan will help farmers manage all the stages in rice production from pre-planting to planting and post-planting.
“Logtan is a digital platform that basically integrates and monitors the entire agriculture cycle. Logtan will compile farmers’ profiles ranging from their personal data to information about land and crops,” said David Bangun, Telkom’s director of digital and strategic portfolio, on Monday.
David said Logtan was also equipped with features that supported farmer’s activities. In the pre-planting stage for example, farmers can apply for microcredit program (KUR) loans through Logtan. Through the app, farmers can also apply for insurance.
David added that in the future the app would be equipped with other features such as access to subsidized fertilizer from the government, seeds and other agriculture supplies. Farmers will also get updated information on their crops through connections with the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) for distribution purposes.
“We will keep developing the Logtan app. In the future, with the data analysis we have in Logtan, we can also predict when the harvest will be and learn about yields,” he said, while adding that in the first phase, Logtan would focus on collecting farmer data.
If Telkom is focused on providing the digital platform, banks in the association of state-owned banks (Himbara) — BNI, BRI, Mandiri and BTN — will be responsible for disbursing KUR loans to farmers.
Bank Mandiri director of institutional relationship Alexandra Askandar said that since the pilot program had started earlier this year, the bank had channeled Rp 87.6 billion to 2,500 farmers in Indramayu, West Java, one of the pilot areas for the farmer’s digitalization and entrepreneurship program.
Meanwhile, state-owned agriculture firm PT Pertani will allow farmers to promptly access production necessities, such as seeds. Pertani will also ensure that facilities like rice grinders, provided by Pertani, are operated properly.
Pertani director Wahyu believes farmers will be able to boost productivity by up to 20 percent through the program.
Bulog, meanwhile, will ensure that all crops produced by farmers are taken up.
“With this model, farmers will no longer have difficulty in accessing the market. They [farmers] do not need to use middlemen to sell their rice because Bulog will absorb all their production,” said Bulog director of business development and industry Imam Subowo.
Other SOEs that will participate in the program are PT Pupuk Indonesia, RNI, Askrindo, Jasindo, Sang Hyang Seri, Pegadaian, Permodalan Nasional Madani (PPI) and Mitra BUMDes Bersama (MBB).
The farmers’ digitalization and entrepreneurship program was launched by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on June 7. The pilot program is being held in nine regencies in West Java, namely Indramayu, Karawang, Purwakarta, Majalengka, Sumedang, Cianjur, Garut, Ciamis and Tasikmalaya.
“We chose regencies in West Java, because this area is well known for its agriculture, but also its high rates of poverty,” said SOE Ministry deputy for agro and pharmaceuticals Wahyu Kuncoro on Monday.
The program dissemination will be intensified until September in the nine chosen areas. During the dissemination process, farmers will still receive assistance from officials, including in accessing Logtan.
The government said it hoped by next year that farmers could independently operate the digitalization and entrepreneurship program across Indonesia.
