In August, members of HARA’s deployment team travelled to Tojo Una-Una regency, in Central Celebes. There, they came across a farmer and her sister-in-law who were in the middle of doing the post-harvest handling of their crops. A pile of ears of corn were laid out in front of them, still covered in their dry, brown husks. To the farmer’s side stood a big bucket that was spilling over with golden coloured ears of corn that she had already attended to.

A farmer in Tojo Una-Una strips the husks off of her yield

Farmers in the region mostly grow their corn with the intent to sell it as animal feed. They plant the corn for 4 months, but then leave it in the field for another 4 weeks to let it dry before harvesting. This process results in a high quality kernel, with a water percentage of only around 15%. However, the overall quality of the farmer’s total yield was, she admitted, quite low, due to her having planted seeds from the yield of the previous harvest.

The original seed that the farmer had used generally results in a very good yield quality. However, the seed was not designed to have its offspring planted in the next season. In doing so, the yield quality decreases every time the process is repeated. The harvest the farmer was processing now was the third generation offspring of the original seed.

The quality of the crops decreases significantly when certain seeds are reused

The impact of this seed replanting on the farmer’s total yield is staggering. The original seed’s productivity averages around 8 tons of corn per hectare, but can reach up to around 13 tons per hectare. However, the third generation offspring that was used only produces a yield of around 1 to 2 tons per hectare. That means the farmer yields 4 to 8 times less for the same work than she would with the original seed.

The farmer was well aware of this fact. She simply had no choice in the matter due to capital limitation. In fact, she hadn’t even used any farm-inputs other than herbicides at the beginning of her planting. The farmers in the region had decided against taking up a loan from the local off-taker because they would not be guaranteed a fair price for their crops once it was time to repay their debts.

A representative from BNI symbolically extends the KUR microcredit to one of the farmers

This problem will continue unless these smallholder farmers can access another source of capital which doesn’t tie them to an uncertain or unfair price for their yield. That is where HARA can make a change. HARA collects the data that allows farmers to apply for microcredit loans. With access to these loans, farmers will be able to drastically increase their yield and consequently their income.

While our work has just started in Tojo Una-Una, 10 farmers have already been able to get microcredit loans through data collected through the HARA platform. Through a bit of data, HARA helps smallholder farmers make a big improvements. This is one way of how HARA will empower billions of smallholder farmers in Indonesia and beyond.