Strengthen Bargaining Power: What Indonesian Farmers Must Do

The Managing Director of Rumah Tani, Bahtiar, has revealed that the position of farmers in Indonesia remains relatively weak. According to him, farmers still do not possess a strong bargaining position within the national food ecosystem. Bahtiar explained that this is because farmers have yet to establish farmer institutions, meaning they still conduct their agricultural processes or production individually. “As a result, their harvest yields are small. And when the harvest yield is small, accessing the market becomes quite difficult. Why? Because the logistics costs will be quite high,” he explained during CNBC Indonesia’s Economic Update 2026 with the theme ‘Performance Achievements and Direction for Strengthening the Ministry’s Priority Programmes’ on Tuesday (23/6/2026). For this reason, he stated that institutional strengthening is needed to increase farmers’ bargaining power. One way to achieve this, he said, is through the Koperasi Desa Merah Putih (Red and White Village Cooperative). “Because with the consolidation of agricultural products, it will reduce logistics costs and make it easier for the market to read,” Bahtiar revealed. Bahtiar gave an example of consolidation between regions that have chilli commodities and regions with cabbage commodities. This consolidation will strengthen the ecosystem of these various commodities. “So now we actually see the government itself is pushing for farmers to have high bargaining power,” Bahtiar explained. Furthermore, he asserted that the success of the agricultural ecosystem will eventually encourage the younger generation to take up farming. According to him, the younger generation needs a push to start looking at the potential of the agricultural sector. “Therefore, we must demonstrate that the agricultural ecosystem is successful and can be publicised to young people as a potential solution,” he said. “We see that, for example, in several regions, our farmers’ incomes are above the regional minimum wage (UMK). Above the local UMK because their earnings are indeed higher,” Bahtiar concluded.