ICTs for small scale farmers in Indonesia: how to make it possible?

Abstract

The effort to digitalized agricultural process has been started since the 1980s to maximize the food production, yet this effort majorly targeted agricultural industries or state-supported farmers group. In Indonesia, the number of small independent farmers is high. These small farmers have little access to ICT infrastructure to support their farming activities. This paper seeks to propose strategies for improving small independent farmers’ access to and utilization of ICTs for agriculture. Qualitative method is used to identify the problems and needs of small farmers and their perception of ICTs for agriculture. Using multi-sites ethnography strategy in gathering data, we conducted in-depth interviews with 22 small farmers from 12 regions in Indonesia. We also observed the day-to-day activities of small independent farmers in two villages in Bogor and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. We found that several strategies have to be considered for developing ICTs for small scale farmers, which are (1) analysing small farmers perception about technology; (2) identifying local-specific issues; (3) involving small farmers in planning digital agriculture system; (4) facilitators of new technology must have communicative competences or communicative skills so the planning of digital agriculture system is done through participatory approaches.