With the number of farmers on the decline, youth-led community movements like Seni Tani and AYO (Agriculture Youth Organisation) are key in addressing Indonesia’s future food security.
Indonesia, like much of the rest of the world, is witnessing a fall in its number of farmers, threatening the vast archipelago’s dream of being able to feed itself. Two young Indonesian women believe they can help.
Despite the country’s booming young population, people under the age of 35 account for just 12% of the country’s farmers. The majority are 55 and over. As they retire, it begs the question: who will feed us?
Organisations like Seni Tani and AYO, both founded by young women, are working to attract the next generation to farming by reconnecting them to the land, building supportive communities and networks, offering training programs and promoting sustainable farming practices.
Article by Clare Aryani
Seni Tani
Translated as “the art of farming,” Seni Tani is a social enterprise that transforms unused urban land in Bandung, West Java, into productive food gardens using regenerative agriculture methods, creating spaces that feed and educate their local community.
Under the buzz of high-voltage power lines, Vania Febriyantie, co-founder and CEO of Seni Tani, and her team have transformed once-abandoned and empty plots into a thriving urban farm. Here, a variety of freshly harvested vegetables will be sent to their subscribers across the city through Seni Tani’s community-supported agriculture program.
Vania and her friends set up the organization in 2020 after learning that a staggering 96% of Bandung’s food comes from outside the region. This statistic, from the city’s Food Security and Agriculture Agency, is rooted in a deeper issue: people have lost their connection to the land and forgotten how to grow their own food. “We no longer know who grows our food, where it comes from, or how it is produced,” Vania says. “Food is packaged, polished, and sold far from its origins.” Her view is that we have become unconscious consumers, opting for what is convenient and cheap over what is good for our health and the environment. “Much of our food is now full of residue, preservatives, or shipped from hundreds to thousands of kilometres away. It’s not fresh, not body-friendly, not eco-friendly.” By relying on outside food sources, local farmers now struggle to sell their harvests locally.
To address this disconnect, Seni Tani identifies and accesses forgotten spaces across Bandung – vacant lots and abandoned areas – to produce food. They improve the soil by using regenerative farming methods, such as creating organic compost collected from household waste and used coffee grounds.
The produce is sold through their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, called Tani Sauyunan – “sauyunan” meaning community teamwork in Sundanese. Seni Tani takes a collaborative approach, partnering with urban farmers from the Buruan SAE (a program by the Bandung City Food Security and Agriculture Office) and young farmers across Greater Bandung to build a stronger local food system through CSA Tani Sauyunan. According to Vania, “a CSA is an alternative food system model that connects farmers and consumers through a relationship built on fairness and mutual care.” Members of Tani Sauyunan join on a monthly subscription basis and receive fresh, locally-grown produce weekly, directly from young farmers. This system helps ensure stable income for farmers while strengthening local food systems by cutting long supply chains and creating a circular economy.
The Seni Tani team consists almost entirely of young people who saw a pressing issue and took matters into their own hands. In addition to urban farming production, Seni Tani regularly organises meetups, discussions, workshops and weekly hands-on farming sessions centering around regenerative practices. Seni Tani was originally a program under 1000Kebun (1000kebun.org), and is now a successful independent organisation. Seni Tani still collaborates with 1000Kebun, running two programs together called NGERUK! (Ngebun Seru Yuk!) which is designed for the general public and a workshop called Kelas Berkebun Gembira (Joyful Gardening Class) specifically for children.
By offering workshops and support with younger generations in mind, Seni Tani helps young people see farming as an important basic skill rather than hard labour and a way to reconnect to nature and benefit their community.
Seni Tani
Instagram: @kamisenitani
Website: senitani.org
AYO (Agriculture Youth Organisation) Community
Jatu Barmawati, founder of AYO Community, grew up watching her father tend to their family’s rice fields. As a child, she would often help out and learned firsthand how much care goes into growing food. She understood that a common perception among young people is that farming is an unglamorous, challenging and unprofitable career, yet her father was able to send her to university from their farm’s harvests. She set out to change negative perceptions around farming and founded AYO in 2014 to rebrand agriculture as a financially viable and modern career path.
What began as a small group of like-minded passionate young Indonesians has grown into a nationwide catalyst organisation connecting young farmers with the resources they need – from established farms and markets to funding and training support.
AYO is based in Jakarta but works across Java and has projects in Papua, Sulawesi, and NTB-NTT. In West Papua’s Arfak Mountain Regency, they’ve been working since 2019 with indigenous communities to develop their unique coffee cultivation, helping establish AMIN – a local youth community focused on organically-grown coffee using traditional methods. They also provide access to trial labs (farms and greenhouses) in Banten and West Java to help young entrepreneurs test their ideas and reach markets they couldn’t on their own.
AYO is modernising agriculture’s image and making it accessible to a new generation by being a connector, removing barriers, providing support and showing that farming can be profitable and “cool.” Jatu explains that in order to change mindsets, we must first lead by example: “We have to be proud as farmers and become role models.” Rather than using traditional outreach methods, AYO cleverly integrates into youth subcultures, like organising reforestation / tree planting events for K-pop fans that combine music with environmental action and uses social media to reach young people.
Yoda Rosario, Vice Lead-Mega, COO-Jatu Barmawati, Founder-Saesar, CMO-Fiqa, Creative Officer-
Danda.
AYO also provides practical skills development and training. One of their success stories is Rifan, a high school student who AYO trained in the food supply-chain business and zero-waste management. He opened up a juice bar and turns waste into eco-enzyme and maggot feed used in the orchards that he sources his fruits from. He now runs a profitable business from this zero-waste food system, proving that agriculture can offer real economic opportunities for young people.
Both Seni Tani and AYO are tackling Indonesia’s decline in farmers in their own ways – Seni Tani by reconnecting people back into nature and creating urban farming communities through their CSA programs, while AYO builds networks across Indonesia to change perceptions, adapt to the interests of young farmers and build them up through training. These different approaches are both crucial for addressing Indonesia’s food security challenges and we will need more organisations like these, led by passionate young people who understand that the future of farming depends on deep local roots and national impact.
AYO Community
Instagram: @ayocommunity
Website: agricultureyouth.org
