Innovative Private Sector Initiatives in Indonesia’s Agriculture: Increasing Productivity of Cocoa, Coffee, and Rubber through Public-Private Partnership

Abstraksi

Indonesia’s coffee, cocoa, and rubber commodities are among the main commodities that have been given priority by the national government to support the acceleration of economic development. Exports of the three commodities are among the world’s second to fourth largest, employing about 3.7 million workers and contributing 387,501.5 billion IDR to the national GDP. However, the productivity rates of these commodities have declined compared to five years ago. This happened despite the Ministry of Agriculture having allocated approximately 300 trillion IDR for each commodity since 2012 to boost productivity through land expansion, seed distribution, and on-field supervision. At the same time, non-governmental actors (NGAs), such as local and international businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGO) and international donor agencies, have supported thousands of Indonesia's coffee, cocoa, and rubber farmers. They helped them to increase their productivity beyond the national level and provided them with economic improvements and opportunities. This research observes the programs of these NGAs and compared them to those undertaken by the Indonesian government. Programs include financial interventions, innovative quality control, contract farming scheme, and continous on-field supervision. The research concludes with the recommendation that the government should further involve NGAs in Indonesia’s agricultural sector, as they have successfully obtained higher productivity rates. Government programs pertaining to cocoa, coffee and rubber should be re-evaluated, so as to prevent a further decline of the productivity levels of the three commodities.