Overview
This project aims to identify opportunities for strengthening Indonesia’s agricultural innovation system to better enable transformation of the agricultural sector in support of more profitable small scale enterprises and food security for Indonesia’s growing population.
Indonesia is in the final stage of a 20-year economic development plan (2005–25) which focuses on infrastructure development, human resource development, ease of investment, bureaucratic reform and better-targeted spending of the national budget toward health care and education. As part of this plan, the Government of Indonesia is seeking to deepen the functional capacity building of both individuals and institutions.
In 2019, the agriculture sector contributed approximately 13% to Indonesian GDP but it employs around one-third of the workforce and remains a vital source of income for rural households. Despite considerable challenges, Indonesia’s large areas of arable land and extensive marine resources, combined with a large agricultural innovation ecosystem, offer significant potential for long-term transformation of smallholder agriculture towards more-profitable small business enterprises.
This agricultural innovation system is complex and undergoing significant changes. The smallholder farming sector which produces the large majority of staple foods and, increasingly, large proportions of the nation’s cash crops is being constrained by many factors including limited land area, climate change and depleting natural resources. To maintain food security for a growing population, Indonesia needs to boost sustainable agricultural productivity, efficiency and competitiveness of the smallholder farming sector.
Given these recent changes and challenges, it is timely to assess opportunities for strengthening Indonesia’s agricultural innovation system.
Expected project outcomes
- Reviewing the mandates, administrative structures and supporting regulations of government institutions within the agricultural innovation and delivery system at national, provincial and kabupaten levels.
- Identifying opportunities for strengthening the roles of these institutions to improve the overall functioning of the system.
- Assessing the effectiveness of linkages between these institutions and identify opportunities for strengthening those linkages to improve the overall functioning of the system.
- Assessing the effectiveness of linkages between the public system and key non-government stakeholders in the agriculture sector (especially farmers organisations, industry associations and agribusiness), identifying opportunities for strengthening those linkages to improve the overall functioning of the system, and through these analyses.
- Providing a range of suggested policy options to strengthen the agricultural innovation system.