Jakarta. State-owned bank BNI recently pledged to boost Indonesia’s national food security with its smart millennial farming program.

According to BNI retail banking director Putrama Wahju Setyawan, BNI Millennial Smart Farming is one of the bank’s sustainable finance initiatives. Under this program, the bank hopes to build a millennial farming ecosystem by integrating the entire agricultural production process with technology. This program focuses on young farmers and digitalization to support the financing of the agricultural sector, which has an impact on a green economy.

“We believe that the empowerment of millennial farmers, who are a key player, can be done through coaching and digital farming with the Internet of things or IoT-based agricultural technologies from the upstream to the downstream sectors,” Putrama said.

The Millennial Smart Farming program encompasses, among others, coaching clinics for millennial farmers on the use of applications for farmers' and off-takers' data collection. The program also provides training on water dripping tool use. Smart farming refers to agricultural practices that adopt technologies such as artificial intelligence, to name a few, for a sustainable and efficient product. Leveraging technology is also pivotal to connecting farmers with off-takers, cooperatives, and village-owned enterprises.

As of Dec. 2022, BNI has disbursed Rp 54.3 trillion in loans for the agricultural sector.

“Financing for the agricultural sector continues to grow. We will continue to drive up agricultural growth for more prosperous farmers in Indonesia,” Putrama said.

According to Putrama, millennials play a key role in the agricultural sector not only as farmers, but also as aggregators, off-takers, and chief executive officers (CEOs) of agricultural cooperatives in their respective regions.  Millennials should also inspire farming entities across the agricultural ecosystem to adopt smart farming. Putrama said he hoped the BNI Millennial Smart Farming could attract more millennials into the agricultural sector for national food sovereignty and more prosperity for the farmers.

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