Taiwan Offers Indonesia Development of Smart Agriculture Demonstration Zone
Taiwan has offered cooperation with Indonesia to develop a smart agriculture demonstration zone. The cooperation is seen as having the potential to support food security while increasing exports of Indonesia’s processed food products.
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung said Taiwan has strengths in developing smart agricultural technology that can be applied to support Indonesia’s agricultural sector. “I believe it can help Indonesia strengthen food security, especially for processed food exports,” Lin said during a meeting with a media delegation at Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei on Thursday.
The meeting was held within the framework of Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP). Lin expressed hope that Indonesia could provide an area to serve as a pilot project for smart agriculture implementation. Taiwan, he said, can provide integrated solutions for agricultural development in the region.
“If Indonesia can provide a demonstration area for Taiwan to provide integrated solutions, that would be greatly appreciated,” Lin said.
According to Lin, the agricultural cooperation is not only about increasing food production. The implementation of smart agriculture also has the potential to be developed as part of building an industry capable of creating jobs and producing goods for export markets.
“I believe that in this way, we can help Indonesia increase employment, boost exports, and build this industry,” he said.
The development of a demonstration zone could serve as a space to observe the integrated application of agricultural technology before it is expanded on a broader scale. The model also opens opportunities to adapt technology to the needs and characteristics of Indonesian agriculture.
Smart agriculture in principle places technology as part of the agricultural production process. Its application can be directed towards improving precision in cultivation management while producing goods of more consistent quality.
For Indonesia, the development of such technology is also linked to efforts to increase the added value of agricultural commodities. Agricultural output is not only directed towards meeting food needs but can also be developed into raw materials or processed products with higher economic value.
This opportunity is relevant to Taiwan’s push for agricultural cooperation to also be directed towards processed food exports. Improving quality and production consistency is an important factor in ensuring products can meet the needs of target markets.
Technology-based agricultural development in Indonesia has already been carried out through a number of partnerships with international partners. One of these is a collaboration between the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) of South Korea.
Nugroho Adi Sasongko, Head of BRIN’s Centre for Sustainable Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Research, said the collaboration is the second phase of a series of cooperation that has been running previously.
“We are focusing on the nutrient absorption characteristics of Indonesia’s leading crops at each stage of their growth. Through KIST’s smart agriculture technology, we can precisely measure the composition of nutrient solutions needed in tropical climate conditions,” Nugroho said in a statement in Jakarta on Tuesday (7/4/2026).
According to Nugroho, the technology is important to ensure the quality of Indonesia’s natural products can meet global industry standards. By adopting smart agriculture technology developed by KIST, Indonesia is expected to optimise the potential of local biological products into natural products with higher economic value.