Country Gender Assessment of Agriculture and the Rural Sector in Indonesia
Publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Date: 2019
Topics: Assessment, Extractive Resources, Gender, Governance
Agriculture, as a vital sector of the Indonesian economy, provides income for the majority of Indonesian households today. This sector is sustained by agricultural commodities such as rice, corn and soybeans; strategic plantation commodities such as oil palm, rubber and cocoa; and livestock commodities such as cattle, goats and poultry. The agricultural sector absorbed 35.9 percent of the total labour force in Indonesia and contributed 14.7 percent to the Indonesian GDP in 2012. Additionally, the agricultural sector serves as one of the key components of national efforts towards food self-sufficiency and poverty alleviation.
Women are involved in all activities in the agricultural sector, such as farming, animal husbandry and fisheries. However, despite serving as the backbone of one of the nation’s most economically important sectors, women in agriculture are marginalized and often have little access to financial resources, knowledge and technology to improve their crop yields and improve their livelihoods. In rural communities of Indonesia, agricultural production activities are carried out by family units. Yet women often have no control over valuable resources and assets such as land, labour and new technologies.