Strengthening the National Agricultural Ecosystem through Farmer Empowerment
The Coordinating Ministry for People’s Empowerment (Kemenko PM) has partnered with Bayer Indonesia to strengthen the national agricultural ecosystem, marked by a strategic collaboration between the government’s Perintis Berdaya program and Bayer’s Better Life Farming (BLF) initiative. The partnership was launched with a field visit and multi-stakeholder dialogue at the BLFC in Mojokerto, East Java, on 22 May 2026. The partnership aims to integrate innovative agricultural technology expertise, formal financing access, and market certainty from the private sector with the government’s macro-coordination functions and social entrepreneurship incubation.
Deputy for Economic Empowerment and Migrant Worker Protection Coordination at Kemenko PM, Leontinus Alpha Edison, stated that smallholder farmers’ independence can only be achieved through a robust and integrated upstream-downstream ecosystem.
‘From the outset, the Perintis Berdaya programme was not designed to create new initiatives from scratch, but to stitch together existing good initiatives like Better Life Farming to expand and replicate them. The approach is empowerment, not aid, aiming for self-reliant farmers with bargaining power and no dependency,’ Leontinus stated in a release on Monday, 25 May 2026.
Leontinus added that Kemenko PM is open to engaging businesses and financing institutions to ensure rural economic ecosystems grow more broadly without bureaucratic barriers.
Model ‘Closed-Loop’ Boosts Productivity
Since its launch in Indonesia in 2020, Bayer’s BLF programme has operated 590 BLFC units across 13 provinces, with 20% managed by women farmers. Through this smart kiosk network, Bayer implements a closed-loop agricultural system that connects the provision of cultivation technology and high-quality seeds, agronomic support, insurance access, and guaranteed crop off-take by buyers.
Internal data shows the model has successfully boosted BLFC farm kiosk incomes by up to 34% and increased beneficiary farmers’ crop productivity by 15-25%.
Bayer Crop Science Agriculture Affairs & LTO Lead Indonesia, Aditia Rusmawan, expressed optimism that macro-level policy support from Kemenko PM would accelerate the replication of this model across regions.
‘The national BLF and Perintis Berdaya partnership initiative is expected to accelerate agricultural transformation in rural Indonesia. With government macro-policy support, we are confident this village-based ecosystem strengthening model can be replicated extensively across provinces,’ said Aditia.
The agricultural sector is a strategic pillar of the real economy for Mojokerto Regency and East Java Province. The presence of this upstream-downstream support programme is acknowledged to significantly help mitigate risks of losses for small-scale farmers on the ground.
Imam Baihaqi, a farmer and owner of BLFC CV Kirana Juara Abadi from Pesanggrahan Village, Kutorejo District, Mojokerto, acknowledged the tangible impact of this business integration on his operations’ stability.
‘Our biggest challenges have always been uncertainty—starting from initial planting season capital, correct cultivation methods, to where to sell harvested produce at good prices. Through the BLF ecosystem, we receive comprehensive upstream-downstream support, including financing and market access. The impact is clear: my BLFC kiosk’s turnover has quadrupled,’ said Imam.