Agritech Startup Crowde on a Mission to Support Farmers Through Funding

TheIndonesia.id - Agritech startup Crowde is teaming up with West Java’s village-owned enterprises (BUMDes) and Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) to establish an ecosystem that allows local farmers to reach more market and to access funding to grow their business.

As reported by Antara on Tuesday, March 29, Crowde aims to provide farming assistance with experts, production facilities through shop partners, and expand market access supported by 158 of Crowde’s off-taker partners that will distribute the harvests of farmers to modern retail channel and the processing industry.

Access to funding is another service that Crowde will provide from its collaboration with BUMDes and KADIN in West Java.

“For now, we continue to educate the farmers, especially to introduce Crowde and cooperation potential to develop agricultural economy in villages,” Crowde’s CEO and co-founder Yohanes Sugihtononugroho said.

Crowde said it intends to work together with BUMDes to solve the problems faced by each one of the entities.

In 2021, Crowde distributed funding to up to 37,000 farmers in Indonesia as a way to empower farmers through modern agricultural ecosystem from upstream to downstream. The aid is in the form of production facilities as well as assistance and access to technology for farmers to improve their work.

Crowde was first born upon concern related to production inefficiency, regeneration crisis, and limited access to capital faced by farmers in Indonesia. It’s a worrying issue because agriculture remains as one of the most vital sectors to national economy, especially in the more rural regions where more than 100 million people work in this sector.

“Through this pilot project with West Java’s BUMDes, we hope to open more doors for collaboration with dozens of other BUMDes across Indonesia, especially to make agricultural ecosystem in villages more efficient and profitable,” Sugihtononugroho said.