Jakarta - Women are increasingly playing an important role in the agriculture 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 agriculture and food sector is not without challenges, so strategic steps are needed to maintain and increase women's access so that they can continue to contribute to agricultural development and household welfare, especially in rural areas.
This was conveyed by ID FOOD's Director of Supply Chain Management and Information Technology, Bernadetta Raras, Tuesday (16/4/2024), after becoming a speaker at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Workshop on Promoting Women Economic Empowerment Across Agri-Food Chain held in Hanoi, Vietnam.
According to her, the large role of women in the agriculture 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 as many as 30% female farmers out of a total of 27.5 million farmers. This number increased from 2019, which was at 24% of the total 24 million farmers.
Meanwhile, in the downstream sector, according to BPS data in 2022, Indonesia has a percentage of female entrepreneurs of 53% or higher than male entrepreneurs at 47%. This number is above other countries in the Asia Pacific, such as the Philippines at 52.1%, Vietnam at 49.2%, and Thailand at 37.9%. Meanwhile, according to data from the Asia Development Bank in 2022, 50% of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) owned by women in Indonesia have increased in the last five years.
Raras said that although the contribution of women in the agriculture and food sector continues to grow, it is not without challenges. According to her, currently, women in various countries face almost uniform challenges, namely related to open access to banking/capital, land ownership, financial and digital literacy, and 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," she said.
To answer these challenges, Raras emphasized the need to implement concrete strategic initiatives, including through an integrated agricultural close loop program from upstream to downstream. "The scheme must be run collaboratively across sectors, so that it can overcome various obstacles from capital, cultivation assistance, technology application, insurance, to logistics and marketing," she 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, banking, insurance, plantation, and logistics or trade sectors. "One of the things we have done to increase women's access to agriculture and food is through the Makmur program, of which ID FOOD is the chairman. This program has proven effective in increasing the number of planted areas, farmer participation, and food commodity production," he explained.
The Makmur Program is an agricultural corporatization program that includes funding activities, cultivation, technology utilization, off take of crops, and insurance. This program has been implemented since 2021 until now. As of 2023, Makmur has contributed to producing a planting area of 692 thousand ha with a harvest realization of 284 thousand ha and the participation of 322 thousand farmer partners. This number includes 5 commodities developed, namely rice, sugar cane, corn, oil palm and coffee. This achievement exceeded the target planting area set at 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 for partner farmers. This can be seen from the increasing participation of partner farmers, 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 the program had reached 151 thousand farmers.
"There is an increase in partnership participation every year. From 2021 to 2022 it increased by 211% and from 2022 to 2023 it increased again by 15%. This indicates more open access for farmers and food business actors and other supporting sectors," said Raras.
Furthermore, Raras explained, efforts to increase women's access in the agriculture and food sector also need to be encouraged through digitalization, so that women are increasingly literate in digital development and the impact will be easier to run businesses online. "Based on data released by the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in 2021, 80% of women-owned MSMEs in Indonesia now use digital platforms to sell their products and services. The survey also found that these businesses experienced an average sales increase of 20% since they started using digital technology," she explained.
In order to increase digital access, ID FOOD has developed a number of applications that can open up women's access to online entrepreneurial activities, such as the development of the Digital Touch Point channel market.idfood.co.id, Digital Auction "Dilan", e-commerce Warung Pangan, optimization of the "PaDiUMKM" market place run with the Ministry of BUMN, and the creation of online store channels in e-commerce in Indonesia to market agricultural and food products.
"This step allows ID FOOD to establish partnerships with agricultural businesses and women's MSMEs. ID FOOD can also off take products produced by farmers to be processed and marketed for national and foreign market segments. So we are opening wide opportunities, especially for women entrepreneurs to collaborate," she 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, and potential collaboration in the adoption of e-commerce for women in the agri-food chain in the Asia Pacific region, especially in its implementation in Indonesia. The APEC Workshop was attended by delegates from countries in the Asia Pacific region including the Philippines, China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. (InfoPublik)