Capacity development for Indonesian agribusiness

On 25 and 26 April 2016, the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) together with MSM and the Indonesian Agribusiness Association, organized the international conference ‘Strengthening Indonesian Agribusiness: Rural Development and Global Market Linkages’. Around 150 scholars from many universities of the Indonesian archipelago as well as experts from Costa Rica, the Philippines, Australia, South Africa and the Netherlands presented a broad overview of the status of Indonesian agribusiness.

(Photo: Mr. Oliver Olson, MSM Director Global Education, addressing the MSM-IPB Bogor international conference in Bogor, Indonesia)

MSM was honored to be one of the featured speakers at the opening session of the conference. MSM Professor Meine Peter van Dijk delivered the keynote on the topic of Global Supply Chain in Agri-Business. Oliver Olson, Director Global Education, representing MSM Dean Prof. Naudé, delivered an overview of the need for not just Agri-Business development, but also, Agri-Entrepreneurship development. He then presented a proposal for how a joint Executive MBA in Agri-Business would look if implemented between Bogor University and MSM. At the end of the plenary session, there was an interest Q&A session in which the audience followed-up on the presentations made. Many of the questioners were interested in more details about the possibility for a joint MBA between Bogor University and MSM as well as details about how Agri-business / Agri-entrepreneurship differs between the developed countries and Indonesia.

The Indonesian agribusiness sector is one of the vital economic pillars of the Indonesian economy, which in total size has reached number 10 worldwide with a GDP of $2.676 trillion (2014 est., CIA, 2015). As the economy is more and more globalized, the link between farmers and the world market has become an important factor in increasing farmer’s welfare. Involving farmers in global value chains is supposed to induce rural development and eventually to strengthen the Indonesian agribusiness.

The conference marked the closure of a five-year project on increasing performance of agribusiness education and training in Indonesia. Among others, MSM contributed to the establishment of a national Agribusiness Association functioning as a knowledge-sharing platform between academia, government and businesses. By the end of 2015, more than 400 lecturers and researchers were member, 13 entrepreneurs, 9 companies and 85-agribusiness study programs http://www.aai.web.id.

Another prominent result were educational improvements, with several agribusiness cases developed for classroom discussions (using the Harvard Business Case format) and the start of an advanced Entrepreneurship Experience course, in which students are coached in setting up agribusinesses.