AGRIFYER

AGRIFYER is a nationwide structured hybrid online-offline program that provides young farmers with:

1. Training materials about agricultural-related skills to increase productivity,

2. Entrepreneurship knowledge to give the ability to run the farms in entrepreneurial ways,

3. Finance literacy and access to better manage the income and scale up their business,

4. Broader market access to increase the absorption of the crops.

The agricultural sector in Indonesia is the number one economic driving sector, which absorbs 28,3% of the total 131 million working workforces. About 37 million people in Indonesia work in the agricultural sector and nearly 10% of them (3,7 million) are still at young ages, 15-24 years old.

In addition, currently, Indonesia is in its demographic bonus era. Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics 2020 population data showed that 70% of the population were in the productive age (15-64 years old). Thus, with estimated 1.25% current growth of population, and with currently 3.7 million young people in the agriculture sector, by 2030, Indonesia will have 4.2 million young people working in this sector.

Despite the great impact on the economy, we found that the level of education within the agricultural workforce and their average income was still very low compared to other sectors. Most of the agricultural workforce (83%) finished elementary school, 15% finished high school, and only 2% of the workforce educated themselves in the university. Those all made the average income was only IDR 1.388.493 (USD 96,75) per month, the lowest of all other sectors.    

It’s a fact that most of the workforce is not well trained, and thus, their productivity is quite low. In addition, with no entrepreneurial training, as well as chance to access financial services and the broader market, there will be no economic growth at scale and an increase in their well-being. 

Our solution is called AGRIFYER. We signed MOU with the Minister of Agriculture of Indonesia at the end of 2020 under the name of Millennial Agricultural Program. It is our commitment to helping the government in running this nationwide program. We targeted to work with 2.5 million young farmers in the next 3  years to increase their capacity and productivity, open up access to financial services and a broader market. In that way, they will lead to the economic growth of the provinces and then the country.

By having increased skills, the young farmers will have increased productivity. By having increased entrepreneurial ways, the young farmers will be able to manage their farms in more entrepreneurial ways. By having access to financial services, the young farmers will be able to scale up their farms and produce more. By having access to a broader market, the young farmers will be able to sell more, and thus, make more income.

This will significantly be impacting their lives positively, as their income and well-being will increase. Structurally, not only does this program reduce unemployment and increase the well-being of the young farmers, but also increases the GDP of the provinces and the country due to the tax paid from the young farmers, as well as income from the export commodity.

The challenge is seeking innovations that could equip and complete skills of the workforce based on the country's need. Improvement skill of the workforce in agricultural as the main driving economy sector we believe could answer the challenge. By improving the skill, not only the well-being of the workforce is increased; it also will bring more economic growth to the country significantly. 

Billy Mambrasar, a current Harvard Student, is also a special staff to the President of Indonesia.

The platform we planned not only will provide the training material and improvement skills for the young farmers, but also will be completed by agriculture commodity geographically database to serve others who want to cooperate in various ways with the young farmers. 

By developing an accessible digital platform, we provide a platform for young farmers to improve their skills and abilities through online and offline training.

The core components stacks are as follows:

• Provide agricultural-related training material that is useful for increasing the skill and knowledge of young farmers.
• Cooperate with government bodies and the private sector to provide chances to access financial services and the broader market to scale up profit.
• Build integrated commodity geographically database to serve the community and other potential parties who want to cooperate with the young farmers. 

We have 3 theory of change as follow:

Increase in the capacity of the young farmers due to the training and assessments. Those who pass the assessments will be incentivized to get support such as fertilizer and tools to support their farming activities. This capacity increase will be leading to an increase in productivity.

An increase in entrepreneurial skills will be leading to an increased ability to trade the products or crops, and sell them to buyers. This will be leading to increased income and well-being of the young farmers.

An increase in the chance to access more financial services will leverage their businesses, so the farmers can sell their products, commodities, and crops even more. This includes stimulating the farmers to be exporters.

Once the program runs well, it will reduce the unemployment and poverty among the young population, especially in the rural areas since most of the farms are located in rural areas. Then it will increase the GDP of the provinces and the country.

The solution is aiming to target 2.5 million young farmers in Indonesia to be trained, to get more chances to access financial services and broader market within the next 3 years with the tripartite system (young farmers, government, and private sectors). 

All the training and financial accessibility to 2.5 million young farmers, was also meant to support the President’s vision. With the theory of change, it could be reducing 2.5 million unemployment and poverty.

Micro Metrics

Reduced Unemployment: Percentage of the young age population who are unemployed before then decided to follow our training and decide to be a full-time farmer (%)

Increased farmers income: The difference of income they had at the beginning of the program and measured annually (%)

Increased productivity: Comparison of the production before and after taking our training (in tonnes or ha)

Increased capacity: Total scoring total difference on their understanding of the training materials and their implementation on farming or on the business.

Increased financial accessibility: Numbers of Capital they gain to improve their farms (USD)

Macro Metrics

Increased Districts income: The Annual GDP (USD) Increased Provincial Income: The Annual GDP (USD)

8 People

Our team consisted of 2 business people who also understand the social change and impact, 3 programmers who are all girls, 2 young farmer ambassadors of the Ministry of Agriculture who understand the technicality of on and off farming to help craft the training materials, and 1 entrepreneurial and financial trainer who also will help to shape the training materials.

We already have 20 local coordinators and potentially will be the trainers who help coordinate young farmers in the 2 provinces at which we have piloted our program.

Our team consisted of multiple genders, ethnicities, religions, and represented different provinces of Indonesia. This is because that we will implement this program in a very diverse country, and thus, our leadership team should show the diversity. We have also been successfully recruited 2,000 young farmers in our pilot stage. 

We are aiming to build a profit organization model to operate the program on a large scale.

Because we want to challenge our way of thinking, and our conceptualization, after we piloted this program. We believe resources such as training, coaching, and mentoring the MIT provides, as well as the network, will be benefiting our process to scale up this program nationally.