MEKAR Drives Agricultural Transformation Through Impact-Based Financing
- MEKAR
- Dec 9, 2025
- 2 min read
The agricultural sector remains a key pillar of Indonesia’s economy. Beyond supporting national food security, it also serves as a primary source of livelihood for millions of smallholder farmers across the country.
Despite its vast potential, the sector continues to face productivity challenges. Currently, agriculture employs nearly 30% of Indonesia’s workforce, yet contributes only around 13% to the national GDP. This gap highlights a significant opportunity to improve efficiency, productivity, and value creation within the sector.
In response, PT Mekar Investama Teknologi (MEKAR) is strengthening its focus on agriculture as part of its commitment to driving inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
Financing Connected to the Real Sector
As an impact-driven fintech lending platform, MEKAR goes beyond providing financial access by developing an approach that is directly linked to real-sector activities.
Through its Multi-Micro Agriculture Financing (MMAF) model, MEKAR integrates financing with agricultural operations. This approach ensures that funding is not only accessible but also contributes directly to improving productivity, operational efficiency, and long-term sustainability.
The MMAF model is implemented through MEKAR’s agricultural ecosystem, including:
Paten Mekar Tani in Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra
Mekar Asta Nusantara (MANU) in Jember and across East Java
Through these entities, MEKAR manages integrated agricultural operations, ranging from land development and farmer partnerships to strengthening supply chains.
CNBC Insight: High Potential, Real Challenges
In an interview with CNBC Indonesia, MEKAR’s CEO, Pandu Aditya Kristy, highlighted both the potential and challenges within Indonesia’s agricultural sector.
“Indonesia’s agricultural sector holds tremendous potential. Nearly 30% of the workforce is employed in this sector, yet it contributes only about 13% to GDP, indicating a productivity gap that needs to be addressed.
Additionally, many of Indonesia’s key commodities hold strong global positions, but are not yet able to fully access export markets in terms of quality and scale.
This is why MEKAR is focusing on agriculture. We are not only providing financing, but also developing the Multi-Micro Agriculture Financing (MMAF) model, which connects financing directly to real-sector production activities,” said Pandu.
According to him, this approach is essential to ensure that financing creates real impact in improving farmer productivity and strengthening the overall agricultural ecosystem.
Driving Real Impact for Farmers and Communities
Through its ecosystem-based approach, MEKAR plays a role not only as a financing provider, but also as an enabler in building a more structured and sustainable agricultural system.
This initiative contributes to:
improving farmer productivity
strengthening agricultural supply chains
creating new economic opportunities at the local level
As agricultural activities expand, the program also has the potential to generate employment and improve community welfare in surrounding areas.
Commitment to National Food Security
MEKAR’s focus on agriculture aligns with the government’s priority to strengthen national food security.
By integrating financing, operational support, and real-sector engagement, MEKAR aims to deliver solutions that are not only impactful in the short term but also sustainable in the long run.
Moving forward, MEKAR aims to reach more agricultural MSMEs and expand its integrated ecosystem across strategic regions in Indonesia.
