Indonesia-Australia cooperation to boost coconut & cassava sectors
SNV Indonesia is proud to announce a new partnership with the Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) that will ultimately benefit smallholder farmers in Indonesia’s coconut and cassava sectors.
The joint collaboration between SNV and DFAT will operate under the framework of the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Promoting Rural Income through Support for Markets in Agriculture (AIP – PRISMA). SNV will implement five projects to improve the production, quality, marketing, and farmer income in the coconut and cassava sectors in Lombok, TTU and East Java.
The specific sectors - cassava and coconuts - were selected given their significant domestic and international market growth potential. Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of coconuts and the third largest producer of cassava. However, training to improve agricultural practices, access to farm inputs, finance and market links are lacking. As such, agricultural productivity is considerably lower than in other countries.
The five projects in which SNV is involved will develop new production techniques, inputs and market connections across the sectors. This is expected to benefit Indonesian smallholders, which are expected to increase their average income by 25%.
SNV Indonesia will adopt its Inclusive Business approach across the projects, which aim to link low-income groups and smallholder producers to private companies' value chains. By creating strong linkages between producers and buyers, farmers have a better chance to market their produce and the private sector secures a more reliable supply chain. By introducing a model which supports a new way of doing business, SNV works towards systemic change with lasting impact that sustains itself long after the project is completed.
SNV will actively work with private sector partners such as PT Singkong on the cassava projects and Big Tree Farms with on the coconut-based interventions. During implementation, the private sector partners will administer extension services and training materials to farmers and farmer trainers. They will also provide input on quality requirements and ensure a ready distribution network for the produce. SNV will support these activities by organising farmers' groups, providing specialised technical advice and assisting in curriculum design. Together SNV and the private partners will work to identify constraints and help solve issues as they arise.
A unique aspect of the SNV-PRISMA cooperation is the plan to monitor project progress and performance indicators during the development and implementation of the five projects to identify where changes are needed. As a result, the projects can be modified in real-time to suit to better support the process and ensure that they remain relevant to the involved smallholder farmers and the private partners.
The first PRISMA projects were launched in early 2014 and will form the basis for similar interventions until 2017. The combined value of the projects is nearly one million Euros.