VEGETABLES FOR FOOD SECURITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Idha Widi Arsanti, Henri Wira Perkasa

Indonesian Center for Agricultural Education

Abstract

The agriculture sector is one of the sectors that showed a positive trend during the Pandemic Covid-19 in Indonesia. This positive trend is partly contributed by an increase in horticultural products such as fruits and vegetables during the period. Vegetables are considered a highly-valued commodity recently because the demand for vegetables shows a steady increase in domestic and international markets. The growing number of middle-income class people in urban areas consider vegetables an essential source of nutrition for their dietary lifestyle. This is an opportunity for the agriculture sector in Indonesia to capture a larger market for vegetables both domestically and globally to contribute toward national food security and economic growth purposes. However, vegetable farming in Indonesia still faces several challenges, both in productivity and structurally, to gain a competitive advantage. Using secondary data, this paper aims to explore vegetable farming in Indonesia by assessing market potential, production, and supply chain issues. The paper finds that the domestic market is as potential as the international market for vegetable products. Yet, farmers are still experiencing low productivity and high production costs that impact their incomes- the structure of vegetable farming is still dominantly conducted by small-scale farmers- a long supply chain- and other environmental issues such as the high use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides- and the expansion of vegetable farming in protected areas. To overcome these challenges, some approaches could be taken: improving the quality of inputs, involving the youth, promoting good agricultural practices, introducing off-season technology, and improving financial access for farmers.

Keywords: competitive advantage, high value products, youth

Topic: Food and Nutrition Security