Indonesia Launches National Strategy on Agriculture Digitalization

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National E-agriculture Strategy is a collaboration between FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture’s Data and IT Center. It aims to accelerate agricultural development.

FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA)’s Data and IT Center (Pusdatin) launched an agricultural digitization strategy in Indonesia, the E-agriculture National Strategy. Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture Dr. Kasdi Soebagyono said this cooperation will accelerate agricultural development. "The e-agriculture national strategy aims to facilitate instruments that are urgently needed by the Ministry to accelerate our agricultural development on upstream, on farm, and on post-harvest, so that farmers strengthen their position in the agricultural industry," he said during the launch of the E-agriculture National Strategy in Yogyakarta on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. 

Instruments needed by the Ministry include data on the area of land cultivated, productivity data, marketing channels, diversification of consumption commodity prices, and food safety. Such comprehensive data can accelerate the development of an Early Warning System (EWS) that can reduce the impact of certain disasters in a country. 

Accurate data is needed considering that Indonesia, as the fourth most populous country in the world, is a major producer of agricultural products. Almost 45 percent of the population lives in rural areas, and more than 90 percent of the rural population works in the agricultural sector as small farmers. Agricultural land accounts for 32 percent of the country's total land area, and the agricultural sector contributes about 14 percent of the national GDP. 

But the fact is, the agricultural sector still faces various challenges. These include high production costs and labor-intensive practices. Smallholder farmers have always worked hard, but have not received an equal share of the benefits of their hard work. 

The National E-agriculture Strategy Roadmap states, among other things, that by 2027 Indonesia will have an integrated database for farmland and farmers, as well as providing a digital early warning system for disasters that threaten agricultural production, and run a system for agricultural data collection, extraction, and analysis. "One of the main entry points for the transformation of the agri-food system in Indonesia is the digitalization of agriculture. Digitalization will generate reliable data and a platform for decision-makers to make right-on-target policies. We need to collect real-time data for more transparent information to enable farmers to get better access to markets", said Rajendra Aryal, FAO Representative for Indonesia and Timor Leste. 

Digitalization of agriculture, Rajendra continued, is also a way to attract young people to get involved in the agriculture business. "Digitalization is the future, and the future now is to empower women, men, and youth in agriculture," he said.

One of the core digital solutions in the National e-Agriculture Strategy is a reliable database for decision-making. This is outlined in the Data Collection Platform (DCP) system that can collate agricultural data from various sources and systems. "Once the data is available, the implementation of other electronic solutions is relatively easy to follow and integrate. The implementation of e-solutions for each region will be done selectively based on regional needs, infrastructure availability, and local wisdom," Rajendra said. 

Together with the Faculty of Agriculture at Gajah Mada University, the Ministry of Agriculture and FAO created a web-based and mobile DCP that can record data in real time. The data collected and compiled by the DCP in the field is linked to the Ministry of Agriculture's Agriculture War Room (AWR) in Jakarta. 

Agricultural Extension Officers in Margoluwih Village, Yogyakarta, and coffee farmers in Pupuan Village, Bali have been part of the pilot project of DCP. In January this year, the Ministry of Agriculture expanded the pilot project to Subang, West Java. FAO together with the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) is also developing a database to calculate the total farmland area and ongoing crop yields. 

This collaboration further aims to integrate BRIN's satellite data with on-the-ground data recorded in the DCP. (*)

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