Video: How Modern Farming and Downstream Processing Can Increase Farmers’ Profits

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – To mark National Food Day, CNBC Indonesia held a World Food Day special programme under the theme “Innovation for Indonesia’s Food Sovereignty”, examining strategic steps to achieve national food security.

At the programme, Amin Nur, head of the Centre for Rice Crop Assembly and Agricultural Modernisation, said the Ministry of Agriculture’s Centre for Agricultural Assembly and Modernisation (BRMP) was developing innovative rice seeds to address farmers’ challenges related to land, weather and water, helping to increase agricultural production efficiently.

BRMP’s seed innovations, used with the PM-AAS (Modern Agriculture–Advanced Agricultural System) cultivation model, can improve efficiency and accelerate production. In trials, BRMP recorded a reduction in production costs from Rp3 million to Rp600,000 per hectare.

Widiastuti, Deputy II at the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs, said the government supported downstream food processing to increase the added value of food products, including by encouraging investment based on production centres and regional strengths.

On distribution, Rumah Tani aims to address long supply chains linking production centres to markets. Its partnership with Pos Indonesia involves establishing 2,000 Agri Pos outlets across Indonesia and preparing 500 warehouse sites equipped with cold storage to collect and distribute agricultural produce.

The programme featured a discussion led by Shania Alatas with Widiastuti, Rumah Tani chief executive Bahtiar, and Amin Nur.