Pancer Tani (the Indonesian branch of Farmers’ Hub) is a multi-service platform initiated by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA). SFSA’s team in Indonesia thoroughly selects farmers who aspire to become entrepreneurs so they can become the owner of Pancer Tani in their local areas. The objectives of the Pancer Tani model are to increase farmers' income and create a positive impact for the community, while generating sustainable profits for the entrepreneur. The Pancer Tani pilot project started in the Mojokerto District in January 2018, specifically in the East Java province, upon where farmers work on an average size of land between 0.3-0.5 hectares.
Project Description
Pancer Tani is an economic opportunity for communities living in remote areas to develop and strengthen agricultural and business knowledge, capabilities and entrepreneurship skills. To deliver these aims, SFSA Indonesia provides professional mentoring and training. In January 2018, we commenced two pilot projects in the Pacet and Gondang sub-districts. In these areas, farmers face many problems: price uncertainty and market commodity fluctuation; low yam productivity; bonded labor where farmers have to sell their goods below market price to pay off their loans; limited agronomic knowledge; low success rates when farmers do their own horticulture seedlings (around 65%); high sensitivity to extreme weather; uncertainty over selecting the most appropriate crop and limited access to markets. Pancer Tani can help solve these challenges meanwhile improving farmers’ livelihoods. Two entrepreneurs have been chosen to lead the pilot projects: Wulyono and Supardi. They already were running a small business before. Each Pancer Tani has its own specific characteristics: Wulyono serves the Pacet area with a focus on fresh yam trade and Supardi serves the Gondang area with a focus on seedling nurseries.
To set up the infrastructure required for each Pancer Tani, the Syngenta Foundation co-finances the costs with the entrepreneurs. SFSA initiates capacity building to train not
only the owners to become entrepreneurs but also farmers with good agricultural practices. Together with the entrepreneurs, our staff in Indonesia create demo plots to identify new crop varieties for improved productivity. Once the Pancer Tani model is proven to be working in that area, SFSA makes sure to support entrepreneurs to expand their business. To make this model operate efficiently, SFSA Indonesia also cooperates with financial institutions, banks, input suppliers, mechanization service operators, and national and local seed producers.
The advantages of being a customer of Pancer Tani are numerous for the farmers: price stability guaranteed through contract farming; opportunities to become horticulture seed production growers (e.g. cucumber, melon, watermelon, red chili, etc.); improved agronomic knowledge; access to advisory services to make more informed decisions over when and what to plant; improved access to quality seedlings; and decreased rejection rate of unacceptable goods to markets thanks to better harvest and post-harvest processes.
Project Achievements
We conducted an Impact Assessment Customer Satisfaction Survey in May 2018 over the first 5 months of the project. Sales and profits are increasing, creating a positive impact for the community. Below is a summary of the key results for the two Pancer Tani.
Impact
Pancer Tani Wulyono (trade fresh yam)
Pancer Tani Supardi (seedling nursery)
Average sales (quantity)
(comparison between May 2017 vs May 2018)
Tons of yam: 166 to 375.6
∆ +126%
Unit of seedlings: 273’000 to 547’645
∆ +101%
Average profit (in $)
(comparison between May 2017 vs May 2018)
$946 to $2,928
∆ +210%
$1,510 to $3,054
∆ +102%
Number of farmers reached
(direct and indirect)
60 (direct) + 107 (indirect)
167
62 (direct) and 149 (indirect)
211
Area covered (hectares)
18 ha
25 ha
Number of employees
28
To harvest, sort, grade, load, wash and dry yam
6
To put soil into polybags, plant and cut seedlings
We recommended to the entrepreneurs to focus on high sales products in order to increase Pancer Tani’s profit. SFSA and the entrepreneurs have reviewed post-harvest activities for improved quality of the goods and increased profit for the farmers. Subsequently, rejection rates of commodity on the market has reduced from 15% to 7%.
Supardi and SFSA have introduced mist irrigation practices in greenhouses; this technology impacts the maturity age of the seedlings (3 days faster from previous practice), which provide a faster turnover with an increased seedling success rates by 10%. Also the better quality of the seedlings has improved the yield up to 7% for the customers.
Next steps
Through our Pancer Tani model, SFSA focuses on promoting youth entrepreneurship (below the age of 35) by creating employment opportunities in rural areas. In July 2018, 5 new Pancer Tani were introduced in Lampung, South Sumatra, of which 3 are Young Agripreneur Pancer Tani (YAPT). They are focusing on mechanization services (land preparation for corn, rice and horticulture), seedling nurseries, grain shelling and rice shelling services, agri-input sales, and seed production. Each Pancer Tani working in the same region has its own business services specialty so that they can complement and support each other with different services. By the end of 2018, we expect to create a total of 10 Pancer Tani in East Java and Lampung, of which half will be YAPT.
