Agriculture in Indonesia is characterized by worries over the shift from subsistence production to market-oriented production. This transformation was once embraced as one of the requirements for increasing productivity.

Although improving the availability of crops to the majority of people working in other sectors, this transformation is affecting the agricultural sector. It did not eliminate unbalanced and discriminatory market structures and it lowered the costs of commodities, thereby forcing market-oriented farmers to be worse off than subsistence farmers, who are more dependent on environmental conditions.

A strategy to develop sustainable development is a shift toward synergizing the different goals of protecting crops, safeguarding income and developing sustainable agriculture. They should be incorporated in national development goals and agricultural promotion efforts. Read more