The main challenge in Indonesia’s agricultural sector is no longer production but efficient, fair, and profitable marketing to improve farmers’ welfare. In this context, agricultural marketing thus plays a strategic role in accelerating agribusiness development and boosting farmers’ prosperity.
“Facts show that many farmers fail to enjoy the fruits of their labor due to low selling prices, lengthy distribution chains, and a lack of fair market access,” stated Professor Jamhari in his inaugural professorial lecture in the field of agricultural marketing at the UGM Senate Hall on Tuesday, Apr. 15, 2025.
In his address titled “Agricultural Marketing as an Accelerator of Agribusiness Development and Farmers’ Welfare Enhancement,” Professor Jamhari explained that agricultural marketing goes beyond selling crops, encompassing value creation, distribution, branding, market segmentation, and strengthening farmers’ bargaining power in competitive domestic and global markets.
According to him, the traditional marketing system, which is lengthy, complicated, and filled with intermediaries, has long contributed to Indonesian farmers’ low incomes.
In such a system, much of the added value from farmers’ harvests is absorbed along the distribution chain, from mediators to collecting traders to retailers.
“A long marketing chain causes the farmer’s share, the portion of the final consumer price received by farmers, to be very small, only about 20-40 percent. That is unfair,” he emphasized.
Professor Jamhari proposed a short supply chain as a solution, enabling farmers to sell directly to consumers, auction markets, cooperatives, or trade partners with minimal intermediaries.
This model has been empirically proven to increase farmers’ income to as much as 60-80 percent of the consumer price, reduce food loss, and accelerate the distribution of fresh products to markets.
“Short supply chains are economically efficient and socially and environmentally beneficial. Carbon footprints are lower, product quality is better maintained, and more humane relationships between farmers and consumers can be built,” he explained.
A concrete example of this approach is the success of the chili auction market in Sleman Regency.
Based on research he conducted with his team, the online auction market has become a price setter for other markets in the Special Region of Yogyakarta.
In fact, 5-13% of chili price fluctuations in Yogyakarta’s local markets follow the prices established at the Sleman auction market.
The Sleman auction market has stabilized prices, increased transparency, and strengthened farmers’ bargaining positions, with the farmer’s share reaching over 70 percent.
Professor Jamhari also highlighted the importance of digital technology in addressing the challenges of agricultural marketing.
He asserted that e-commerce platforms, blockchain-based marketing applications, and big data analysis for market trend prediction are becoming essential in the era of Agriculture 4.0.
“The future of agricultural marketing cannot be separated from technology, from product traceability, digital payment systems, smart packaging, to the use of social media for branding and storytelling of local agricultural products,” he explained.
However, he warned that this digital transformation would only be impactful if farmers had sufficient digital literacy. Therefore, training and mentoring are crucial.
Cooperatives, universities, the government, and startups must build an inclusive training ecosystem so that farmers are not left behind in the digitalization of the market.
Institutional amalgamation, such as cooperative corporations (KUD) and strengthened farmer groups (Gapoktan), is also a strategic step to scale up operations and improve efficiency.
“We need to build an inclusive marketing ecosystem that empowers farmers, promotes applied research based on technology, and strengthens pentahelix collaboration so that farmers can rise to become prosperous market players,” he concluded.
The Chair of UGM’s Board of Professors, Professor M. Baiquni, stated that with this inauguration, Professor Jamhari became one of 528 active professors at Universitas Gadjah Mada, further strengthening the ranks of the 62 active professors at UGM’s Faculty of Agriculture.
This achievement reinforces UGM’s position as a center of academic excellence in agriculture and contributes to the ongoing legacy of scholarly work dedicated to advancing the nation.
Author: Triya Andriyani
Post-editor: Lintang Andwyna
Photographer: Donnie