Speaking At The APEC Forum, ID FOOD Presents A Strategic Initiative To Increase Access For Farmers And Female MSMEs In The Food Sector

Director of Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Information Technology (TI) ID FOOD Bernadatta Raras. (Photo: Doc. ID FOOD)

JAKARTA - Women are increasingly playing an important role in the agricultural and food ecosystem. This can be seen from the growing contribution of women in the supply chain stages of the food industry such as cultivation and distribution (MSME sector). However, the existence of women in the agricultural and food sectors is not without challenges, so strategic steps are needed to maintain and improve access to women so that they can continue to contribute to agricultural development and household welfare, especially in rural areas.

This was conveyed by the Director of Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Information Technology (TI) ID FOOD Bernadetta Raras, Tuesday, April 16, after speaking at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Workshop on Promoting Women Economic Empowerment Across Agri-Food Chain held in Hanoi Vietnam. According to him, the large role of women in the agricultural and food sector is in line with the growth of female farmers and MSME players in Indonesia.

Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2020, Indonesia has 30 percent of female farmers out of a total of 27.5 million farmers. This number increased from 2019 which was at 24 percent of the total 24 million farmers.

Meanwhile, in the downstream sector, according to BPS data in 2022, Indonesia has a percentage of female entrepreneurs 53 percent or higher than male entrepreneurs of 47 percent. This number is above other countries in Asia Pacific, such as the Philippines at 52.1 percent, Vietnam at 49.2 percent, and Thailand at 37.9 percent. Meanwhile, according to data from the Asia Development Bank in 2022, 50% of women's micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia have increased in the last five years.

Raras said that although the contribution of women in the agricultural and food sector continues to grow, this is not without challenges. According to him, currently, women in various countries face almost uniform challenges, namely related to open access to banking/modality, land ownership, financial and digital literacy, as well as market access.

"Therefore, the support of all food stakeholders for women's empowerment in the food sector needs to be continuously improved, considering that women are one of the pillars of agricultural development and household welfare, especially in rural areas," he said.

To answer these challenges, Raras emphasized the need for implementing concrete strategic initiatives, including through an integrated agricultural close loop program from upstream to downstream.

"The scheme must be carried out collaboratively across sectors, so that it can overcome various obstacles ranging from capital, cultivation assistance, application of technology, insurance, to logistics and marketing," he explained.

He gave an example, such a model has been running in Indonesia through the Makmur program initiated by the Ministry of SOEs together with a number of SOEs in the food sector, banking, insurance, plantations, and logistics or trade. One of what we are running is to increase access to women in the agricultural and food sectors, namely through the Makmur program where ID FOOD acts as its chairman. This program has proven to be effective in increasing the number of planting areas, farmer participation, as well as food commodity production," he explained.

The Makmur program is an agricultural corporatization program that includes funding, cultivation, technology utilization, off-take yields, and insurance. This program has been implemented since 2021 until now. Until 2023, Makmur has contributed to producing 692 thousand ha of planting area with the realization of 284 thousand ha harvest and the participation of 322 thousand farmer partners. This amount includes 5 commodities developed, namely rice, sugar cane, corn, palm oil, and coffee. This achievement exceeds the targeted planting area of 557 thousand ha.

The increase in the realization of Makmur in the last 3 years shows that this food integration program has had a positive impact, especially on partner farmers. This can be seen from the increasing participation of farmer partners, in 2021 the number of partners was recorded at 42 thousand farmers, in 2022 it rose to 131 thousand farmers, and in 2023 farmers who joined this program had reached 151 thousand farmers.

There has been an increase in partnership participation every year. From 2021 to 2022 it has increased by 211% and from 2022 to 2023 it has increased again by 15%. This indicates that access is increasingly open for farmers and food business actors and other supporting sectors," said Raras.

Furthermore, Raras explained, efforts to increase access to women in the agricultural and food sectors also need to be encouraged through digitization, so that women are increasingly literate about digital development and the impact will be easier to run their business online.

"Based on data released by the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information in 2021, 80 percent of female MSMEs in Indonesia are now using digital platforms to sell their products and services. The survey also found that these businesses experienced an increase in average sales of 20% since they started using digital technology," he explained.

In order to improve digital access, ID FOOD has developed a number of applications that can open access women to carry out online entrepreneurship activities, such as the development of the Digital Touch Point market.idfood.co.id channel, Digital Auction Dilan, e-commerce Warung Pangan, optimization of the PaDiUMKM marketplace run with the Ministry of SOEs, and the creation of online store channels in e-commerce in Indonesia to market agricultural and food products.

The move allows ID FOOD to form partnerships with agricultural and female MSME business actors. ID FOOD can also take off the products produced by farmers to be processed and marketed for the national and foreign market segments. So we open the widest opportunity, especially for female business actors to collaborate," he explained.

As for the APEC Workshop on Promoting Women Economic Empowerment Across Agri-Food Chain held in Hanoi Vietnam for 2 days, ID FOOD appeared in the E-commerce in Promotion of Women Economic Empowerment in Agri-food Chain session.

On this occasion, ID FOOD contributed to the identification of opportunities, specific challenges, as well as the potential for collaboration in e-commerce adoption for women in the food farming chain in the Asia Pacific region, particularly in its implementation in Indonesia. APEC Workshop was attended by state delegates in the Asia Pacific region including Philipina, China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.