Members of the South Bandung Farming Cooperative (KPBS) have recorded a 38 per cent enhance in productive loans and a 43 per cent rise in gross sales volumes over the previous two years, following the introduction of a brand new enterprise app.
“Simpler entry to financing means larger mortgage volumes, which in flip means extra cattle and better earnings for our farmers,” mentioned Head of KBPS Aun Gunawan. “That is how monetary inclusion results in improved livelihoods.”
Dairy farmers in Indonesia are utilizing a brand new business-focused app which helps them to spice up gross sales.
Based in 1969, KPBS has 5,000 members and produces 70,000 tons of milk a day. The cooperative operates its personal dairy plant, utilizing round 15 per cent of its milk manufacturing to fabricate yoghurt and mozzarella cheese, whereas the rest is bought to dairy firms within the area.
As well as, the cooperative runs a hospital, veterinary service, and a financial institution—all designed to help members and improve their properly‑being and competitiveness.
Holistic and wholesome
“We take a holistic method, and for us it’s all about well being—not solely the well being of farmers and their cattle, but in addition monetary well being,” Mr Gunawan defined to the heads of United Nations companies in Indonesia, who visited KPBS as a part of their annual Management Dialogue on shaping the UN’s trajectory within the nation.
The Worldwide Labour Group (ILO) is now supporting the cooperative in implementing this imaginative and prescient, leveraging digitization to strengthen monetary inclusion. The challenge is applied in cooperation with the Indonesian Monetary Providers Authority (OJK) and the Coordinating Ministry of Financial Affairs.
A employee checks the pH of semi-fermented milk as a part of the cheese-productioin course of.
“KPBS was already a powerful, properly‑managed enterprise earlier than our involvement,” mentioned Simrin Singh, ILO Nation Director for Indonesia and Timor‑Leste. “The instruments we now have offered have catalyzed additional enhancements and enhanced livelihoods.”
Via the Enterprise Useful resource Planning (ERP) system enterprise app – launched by the ILO beneath a challenge funded by the Authorities of Switzerland – farmers can now observe their earnings and bills, together with the price of fodder offered by the cooperative.
In addition they have 24/7 entry to the cooperative’s veterinarians, who can attain farms inside half-hour.
The app information particular person animals’ veterinary knowledge, together with vaccination schedules, enabling milk assortment factors to segregate milk from just lately vaccinated cows. If combined with common milk, such milk may scale back the day’s total high quality—and due to this fact the promoting value.
Increased quantity, higher value
“These sensible enhancements have contributed not solely to larger volumes but in addition to raised costs per litre bought,” Mr Gunawan mentioned.
Essentially the most important affect, nevertheless, has been improved entry to finance. The cooperative has operated its personal financial institution since 1993 to offer farmers with credit score.
With the ERP system, mortgage purposes have develop into easier and extra accessible, Ms Singh defined. The financial institution can now view farmers’ monetary knowledge – earnings, liquidity, and excellent debt – straight by way of the system, leading to the next charge of authorised purposes.
Purposes have additionally elevated. With the built-in ERP device, farmers now not have to journey and queue to finish varieties; they will apply straight by way of the app, the place their monetary historical past is already recorded and out there to the lending group.
Dairy cows feed at a farm in Pangalengan, in West Jave, Indonesia.
“This will sound like a matter of comfort, however it’s excess of that,” mentioned dairy farmer Encih Mintarsih. “Farmers can’t simply depart their cattle for half a day, not to mention a number of instances, to submit an utility that won’t even be authorised.
“Now we are able to apply on-line and spend our time productively. That makes us much more prone to pursue financing,” she added.
In the direction of meals self‑sufficiency
Programmes like this have broader nationwide relevance: strengthening home meals manufacturing and self‑reliance is a high precedence for the Authorities of Indonesia.
The nation at present imports round 80 per cent of its dairy merchandise. Enhancing the productiveness and competitiveness of native milk producers contributes on to nationwide self‑sufficiency targets.
It additionally supplies a mannequin for inclusive rural financial development.
“In an higher‑center‑earnings nation like Indonesia, the digital transformation of the financial system and improved entry to finance are important for progressing towards excessive‑earnings standing,” mentioned Gita Sabharwal, UN Resident Coordinator in Indonesia. “Because of this, in shut session with the Authorities, digitalization and entry to finance are key priorities of the brand new cooperation framework between the UN and Indonesia.”
The United Nations Sustainable Improvement Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), signed in August 2025 and aligned with the SDGs and Indonesia’s nationwide improvement agenda, outlines how the UN will contribute to 3 transformative outcomes within the nation, together with Financial and Digital Transformation.
“This excellent programme by the ILO demonstrates how the UN can complement the Authorities’s efforts to speed up inclusive improvement utilizing fashionable expertise,” Ms Sabharwal mentioned.
The challenge contributes on to OJK’s Rural Financial institution Transformation Blueprint, strengthens the inclusive monetary ecosystem mannequin, and helps the efforts of the Nationwide Committee on Monetary Literacy and Inclusion to enhance monetary literacy and inclusion. It additionally aligns with nationwide priorities to digitize small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and enhance productiveness by way of digital instruments.
“In Indonesia, 90 per cent of jobs are created by SMEs – so bettering their competitiveness is important to making sure respectable work,” Ms Singh mentioned.
The intent is for this method to be rolled out extra extensively throughout the nation.
What recommendation does Mr Gunawan have for different cooperatives and policymakers? “Present farmers clear and tangible advantages, and they’re going to rapidly undertake digital applied sciences,” he mentioned.
“Buzzwords like ‘digitization’ and ‘monetary inclusion’ have to be translated into their each day actuality – simply as we now have finished right here with the help of the ILO and the UN.”
