MILLIONS of farmers in ASEAN other Asian countries will soon enjoy their own Internet-based “ASEAN e-Farmers” hub specially developed for the agriculture and food sector by ASEAN.
The inauguration of this e-hub on Tuesday, 26 February, at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta is expected to benefit more than 200 million farmers and their dependents in ASEAN and potentially another 500-700 million farmers in China, Korea and Japan.
Professor Dr. Bungaran Saragih, Minister of Agriculture of Indonesia, will officially launch the eFarmers hub together with ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino and Governor Zulkifly Nurdin of the Indonesian province of Jambi, a pilot site of the project.
The project will provide farmers and producers direct access to key market information and a broad set of services through an electronic marketplace that will allow them to engage in trade and complete their transactions on-line. Farmers, refineries, food processing companies, supermarkets and retailers will be able to participate in the regional and global agriculture and food markets that today are only accessible by big institutional players.
Designed as an efficient one-stop shop that will provide key services for complete trading in agriculture, the ASEAN eFarmers hub will be integrated with major regional banks, financial services, transportation, shipping and handling, warehousing, certification and news services providers. It will provide e-marketplace solutions to support transaction of small and medium size agricultural enterprises, especially farmers cooperatives.
This initiative aims to stimulate the development and growth of infrastructure and improve the economic capacity in the underserved areas to increase the net income of farmers and producers in these areas.
The ASEAN eFarmers hub is being developed by Agritrani International Pte. Ltd, a private company incorporated in Singapore. The new e-hub has the support of both the private and public sector. Leading strategic partners for the development of the hub are Accenture, the business architect for the Hub and Microsoft and Hewlett Packard which is providing the backbone infrastructure of the e-hub.
Development of the project started in February 2001 with the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the ASEAN Secretariat and Agritani. With support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany especially in addressing capacity building activities, a series of workshop will be conducted around the region.
The ASEAN eFarmers project is one of the flagship projects initiated by the ASEAN Secretariat as a result of the ASEAN Framework Agreement adopted in November 2000 by the ASEAN heads of government at their meeting in Singapore. The agreement aims to improve the digital readiness of the region through the application of information and communication technologies.
As part of the ASEAN e-initiative, the ASEAN Secretariat embarked on a development programme in the area of agriculture to address the challenge of improving the economic welfare of the farming community which accounts for more than 50% of the ASEAN population but remains largely underserved.
The project is now recognized as a strategic ICT program under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration whose objective is to narrow the digital divide within ASEAN and enhance ASEAN’s competitiveness in the global marketplace.
In Indonesia, several sites involving hundreds of farmers’ cooperatives have been identified for the pilot launch. Many of these sites are in the province of Jambi. The e Farmers National Task Force In Indonesia now comprise of government and semi government organisations such as LIPI, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Sucofindo, Ministry of Agriculture, Bulog, and the Department of Agricultural Cooperatives of Indonesia.