In Indonesia, women constitute approximately 40% of smallholder farmers, playing crucial roles in agriculture. Despite their contributions, women often face challenges such as limited access to land, capital, and resources, affecting their ability to achieve financial independence.

Microfinance has emerged as an effective pathway to empower women, providing them with the necessary capital to enhance their agricultural practices and secure sustainable livelihoods. Our local partners in Indonesia have helped women make significant strides in farming, organising self-help groups that facilitate savings and credit activities, enabling women to invest in their farming operations and improve trade of fresh produce in their regions.

Anita's story

When they were married in 1999, Anita and her husband began farming the small piece of land they inherited from her in-laws in Oesao, in Eastern Indonesia. They grew rice, fruit and vegetables, selling them at local markets. However, prices were low and unstable, making it hard to earn a sustainable income.

Anita accessed small loans from Opportunity’s local partner TLM to build and sustain her small farming business. On average they were able to get around Rp.5,000 per kilo of rice (around A$0.50).

In 2024, Anita joined 11 other local women in TLM’s market linkages initiative. Thanks to the program, staff mentored her to improve her small business, focusing on aspects like the quality of her rice, and soon Anita was selling rice directly to the market linkages team, fetching Rp.9,000 per kilo – an 80 per cent increase.

Now a trusted supplier, she was offered the opportunity to become a ‘collector’– buying rice from other local farmers, ensuring the quality and then on-selling to TLM for distribution. Anita buys rice from local farmers for Rp.9,000 per kilo, selling the rice in bulk to TLM for a small commission. TLM gives her an interest-free loan to buy the rice and she is paid when she delivers it to the warehouse. She has become the biggest collector in the program, supplying more than 43 tons of rice in around nine months.

Anita has built herself a good reputation as a collector, paying competitive prices for the rice, meaning farmers want to sell to her. Anita is motivated to continue to grow her business and is proud that she is supporting other local farmers to build more sustainable livelihoods, while improving her income.

Boosting livelihoods through market linkages

Collectors like Anita, who are small business owners themselves, buy from other farmers at a good price, and deliver to our local partner  warehouse. TLM distributes to sales agents in the cities and rural areas, including microfinance clients with kiosks and restaurants, providing them with interest-free loans to take on the goods, with repayments only due when they have sold the products.

TLM has also been able to use the distribution infrastructure to transport goods from urban areas to remote locations which had previously struggled to access even basic goods such as oil, sugar, clean water, tea and coffee. While these were previously available, the cost was exorbitant and therefore out of reach of people living in poverty in very remote areas.

TLM also uses produce from the farmers in the kitchen at their vocational training restaurant, LaCove, where they train young people in hospitality to serve the tourist market.

_{The market linkages program is helping women support their community and earn an income}

Last year, 1,430,913 families in Indonesia benefited from small loans and financial services, with more than 97 per cent of our loan clients being women. Learn more about how microfinance is changing lives in Asia.