Building on the success of a capacity building project improving livelihood of thousands of smallholders in Central Sumatra Jambi, Ksapa is responsible for the design and deployment of a replicated project, Mahakam, supporting small plantation farmers in East Kalimantan in the extraction of natural rubber. Through the Mahakam project, smallholder farmers will have access to hybrid trainings using the SUTTI digital solution developed by Ksapa. This program allows participating farmers not only to benefit from in-person trainings from natural rubber experts, they will also have access to digital farmer-friendly information and support on cultivation practices, post-harvest practices and Good Environmental Practices.
This project encompasses the entirety of the supply chain: smallholder farmers and partners, a natural rubber processing company and a tire maker. All these actors are coming together to improve the livelihoods of the smallholder farmers, essential to a thriving production of tires.
the challenge
The scope of the mission was based on the design of a training program adapted to the local context as well as to the technical constraints of smallholders. The three priority objectives were as follows:
- Adapting the training modules already available in the digital application to the local context
- Field analysis exploring the constraints faced by smallholder farmers
- Strategizing on linking the smallholder farmers to the collection and processing centers to reduce third parties involvement and increase their profit margin
OUR APPROACH
The achievement of the set objectives was above all achieved through a consensus between the project stakeholders. We adopted a very rigorous approach in order to :
- Conduct a field study with the targeted local population. As a result, we were able to identify good practices, habits, customs, difficulties and critical points to cover in the training
- Adapt the learning requirements and specificities of the local context into a pedagogical methodology adapted to each training module
- Integrate the training content on the e-learning application (translated)
- Develop a strategy to directly link the farmer groups to the collection and processing center.
RESULTS & NEXT STEPS
MAHAKAM is a support project that starts at the lowest level of the natural rubber supply chain. The scheme will see thousands of smallholders trained by local partners to make extraction methods more environmentally compatible and efficient. This makes a considerable contribution to the lasting improvement of living conditions of smallholders and their families. This scheme will also connect the farmers to the factory directly, creating a friendly relationship to facilitate the selling process through enforcement and creation of farmer groups at the village level. The next step to be implemented are :
- Setting up and strengthening the farmers groups to organize the trainings
- Measuring the impact of the training modules on the progress of smallholder farmers
